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Hochzeitspaar Elisabeth und Hermann Silbiger
© Privatbesitz

Hermann Silbiger * 1908

Rutschbahn 15 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Rutschbahn 15:
Jacob Blankenstein, Sophie Blankenstein, Heinz Heymann, Elisabeth Silbiger, Frieda Warneck, Ruth Warneck

Elisabeth Silbiger, née Gerson, born on 20 Dec. 1913 in Vechta, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk
Hermann Silbiger, born on 1908 in Osternburg, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Rutschbahn 15

Elisabeth (Lisa) was born in the South Oldenburg city of Vechta on 20 Dec. 1913 as the first of three daughters. Her parents were Sofie (Sophie) Gerson, née Stehberg (born on 10 May 1887 in Adelebsen) and Emanuel Gerson (born on 31 Mar. 1883 in Jemgum). Two years before, Emanuel Gerson had left his East Frisian native region, the Rheiderland, opening a livestock trade with his brother Adolf (born on 31 July 1885 in Jemgum) in Dec. 1911.

In Dec. 1912, Moni (the name by which Emanuel Gerson was called in Vechta) married Sofie Stehberg. The couple resided at Klingenhagen 3 in upscale circumstances, as the livestock trade was very well received in the region. The Gersons seem to have been very active in Vechta’s Jewish Community; at least one can surmise this from Emmanuel’s subsequent position as the head of the Community. However, apparently the family was not isolated from the largely Catholic population of Vechta. For instance, according to a Jewish newspaper, the bulk of the funeral procession at the burial of Elisabeth’s mother in 1934 was made up of non-Jewish people. That is also the impression shared by contemporary witnesses from Vechta, for example, by one of Elisabeth’s childhood friends, Agnes Behne: "Among the farmers, the Gersons were popular, and they also got along well with the ordinary folk living on Klingenhagen; however, is appears that closer personal contacts with the well-to-do business people did not come about.”

Elisabeth’s sister Rosel was born on 12 Feb. 1923. The youngest family member of the Gersons, Jutta, was born on 2 Mar. 1928. By this time, Elisabeth already attended the "Schwestern Unserer Lieben Frau” secondary business school (Handelsaufbauschule) in Vechta, where her school career took a rather difficult course. She had to repeat the first grade of the business school, eventually dropping out of the graduating class in 1931. As was usual in those days, Elisabeth was then to complete a "household year” ("Haushaltsjahr”). At the time, young girls were sent to live with other families, learning how to manage a household there. Elisabeth was assigned to Nieheim/East Westphalia, but she left the place soon afterward because she did not get along well with her host family. Continuing her "household year” in Bad Pyrmont in the Weser Uplands, she worked there in the guest house of Max de Haas, the nephew of the Regional Rabbi (Landesrabbiner) of Oldenburg, Philipp de Haas.

Her return coincided with the assumption of power by the German National Socialist Workers’ Party (NSDAP), a development that made the family’s life in Vechta considerably more difficult. Furthermore, at the beginning of 1934, her mother Sofie died after a short and severe illness at the age of 46. Added to the grief and the economic difficulties was the fact that the homemaker was now missing, and Elisabeth had to replace her.

In 1935, three years after her return, Elisabeth’s engagement to the Jewish traveling salesman Jacob Menno von Zuiden from the Dutch city of Zwolle was announced in the Oldenburgische Volkszeitung. Probably she had met him in the course of her journeys to see relatives in the Netherlands, which she undertook quite often. However, the engagement was broken off again for unknown reasons. Later, Elisabeth got to know the textiles merchant Hermann Silbiger, whom she had likely met on a trip to Hungary organized by a Jewish travel agency.

Hermann Silbiger was born on 5 May 1908 as the first child of Moritz Silbiger (born on 19 May 1882 in Wieliczka) and Anna Silbiger, née Neger (born on 15 May 1882 in Przeworsk). He came from a merchant family hailing from Galicia. His parents had settled in Osternburg in 1908, moving soon thereafter to an owner-occupied house at Rebenstrasse 37 in Oldenburg. He had one sister, Hanni Silbiger (married name Laing, born on 1 Oct. 1909 in Oldenburg), and a brother, Isidor Silbiger. Hanni emigrated to Britain in 1939, living there after the war as well. Isidor passed away in 1933. The family belonged to a stratum of Jews describing themselves as "tradesmen” and having arrived in Oldenburg from the area of today’s Poland and Ukraine only at the beginning of the twentieth century. Apparently, great cohesion prevailed among this group and there were frequent marriages among them. Moritz Silbiger was listed as a "Produktenhändler” (produce dealer), a common term at the time for someone buying and reselling the produce from local agriculture.

After finishing the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule), Hermann Silbiger began an apprenticeship as a textile merchant with "Flatauer und Co, Textilwaren-Grosshandlung,” a textile wholesale company. In 1928, he started a job as a "purchaser” for "Textilwaren-Grosshandel Heinrich Hirschberg,” also a textiles wholesaler. There he earned between 200 and 300 RM (reichsmark) a month, a solid income, though not apt to make a fortune. His boss at the time, Heinrich Hirschberg, later described him as a "committed and important employee.” In the last years of his work at the textiles wholesale company, Hermann rose to "manager of the shipping department,” before the business had to close in 1938 due to the ever escalating reprisals against Jews in the Nazi dictatorship. Afterward – as Hermann Silbiger subsequently indicated in a letter to the local "foreign currency office”– he earned only 25 RM a week in 1938 and was still expecting some income from wage labor in 1939.

In the night of the November Pogrom of 10 Nov. 1938, Hermann Silbiger was taken into "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) and committed to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The same fate caught up with Elisabeth’s father Emanuel, who was quartered in Block 42 together with Hermann. Released from detention on 12 December, Hermann returned to Oldenburg. Emanuel Gerson had already been released on 6 December.

The daily life of the two families shaped up to be increasingly more difficult. The Jews in Vechta were harassed by police and "Aryan” fellow citizens. After the Gersons’ livestock trade had been forced to close in 1938, the financial situation worsened as well. In December, they had to sell the house at a price of 14,000 RM but were not allowed to access the proceeds, since the sum was deposited in a blocked account. In June 1939, the Gersons, having registered with the authorities in Oldenburg, were assigned an apartment in a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Achternstrasse 46. There they were compelled to live as subtenants in extremely cramped conditions. We do not know whether Hermann and Elisabeth already lived together at this time. Hermann’s former employer recalls that Hermann had been planning his wedding since 1936.

Hermann’s father Moritz managed to hold on to his business until Jan. 1939, eventually being forced to deregister it. By that time at the latest, the Silbigers, too, found themselves caught in dire straits, especially because that year also saw the imposition of "security orders” ("Sicherungsanordnungen”) against Hermann and Emanuel Gerson on top of everything else, i.e., they were no longer allowed to dispose of their assets. Moreover, the anti-Jewish hatred of "Aryan” Oldenburg residents erupted at an increasing frequency in physical violence as well.

In early 1940, both families left Oldenburg. This did not take place voluntarily: The Gestapo planned the deportation of East Frisian Jews to the District of Lublin/Poland. The Jewish central organization, the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland), proposed that the persons affected, about 1,000, be resettled within Germany in order to prevent this early deportation to an inhospitable area.

Those affected were taken to Hamburg, among other places, as were the Gerson and Silbiger families. The latter registered with the authorities on 26 Apr. 1940 as residing at Hasselbrookstrasse 154; the Gerson family on 12 Apr. as living at Parkallee 4 on the third floor. Shortly afterward, the Silbiger family moved to Berlin into an apartment (with Bornstein) at Grosse Frankfurterstrasse 75. The reasons for and duration of Hermann Silbiger’s residency in Berlin are unknown. Possibly, he returned to Hamburg again after the death of Emanuel Gerson in the Hütten police prison on 21 May 1940. The register of deaths indicated as the official cause of Emanuel Gerson’s death "suicide by hanging;” whether this was the truth and what the justification of Emanuel Gerson’s imprisonment was in the first place is unclear.

Elisabeth’s uncle, Erich Stehberg, became the children’s new guardian. This had to happen because according to the law at the time, Elisabeth could not assume custody for her underage sisters, even though she had cared for them and managed the household. Erich Stehberg registered with the Hamburg authorities on 25 June 1940.

From mid-1940 onward, Hermann lived in Hamburg again, now together with the Gersons at Wrangelstrasse 10 on the fourth floor (with Garcia). The wedding still had not taken place. On 5 Aug. 1940, Hermann filed an application for exemption from producing the certificate of no impediment for foreign nationals,” since, by then stateless person, he required such a certificate for marrying. In return for paying 5 marks in fees, his request was granted. Hermann and Elisabeth were married on 14 Aug. 1940.

The financial situation of the couple was poor: Initially, after an inquiry with the foreign currency office, Elisabeth was still allowed to use 160 RM a month from the remaining assets of her father. According to her own information, she had to cover rent and living expenses from that sum. The apartment rent at the time was 60 RM. The money had to suffice at least for her and her sister Jutta. Hermann no longer had any assets. Nevertheless, in 1940 and 1941, he still paid small amounts in taxes (12 and 8.95 RM, respectively, a year) to the Jewish Community in Hamburg. According to Elisabeth, her father’s assets had actually increased by repayment of a ship’s passage. This meant that emigration had been planned but it failed to materialize. However, in Sept. 1940, the "security order” against Elisabeth was lifted, because she, too, no longer had any assets. By then, the small family was completely impoverished. Photographs show that Elisabeth was emaciated. Hermann had to perform forced labor at the Steen hemp spinning mill. In the directory entry from 1942, when he had long since been deported, he was listed as a laborer and not as a merchant anymore.

In Hamburg, the small family changed residences at least once more, to the "Jews’ house” at Rutschbahn 15, where they lived on the second floor (with Horvitz). Eventually, in Nov. 1941, the Silbigers were served the so-called evacuation order. "Evacuation orders” ("Evakuierungsbefehle”) was a euphemistic and veiling term for the notifications regarding imminent deportation. Elisabeth’s sister Jutta was documented on the deportation list by the Gestapo as a "person who had volunteered.” Probably, the family did not want to leave the 13-year-old girl behind by herself.

On 8 Nov. 1941, Elisabeth Silbiger, Hermann Silbiger, Jutta Gerson, and Erich Stehberg were deported by train from the Hannoversche Bahnhof train station to the Minsk Ghetto.

The traces of Hermann, Elisabeth, her uncle, and her sister disappear after arriving in Minsk on 10 Nov. 1941. We do not know how and when they perished. Of the Gersons and Silbigers, who went to Hamburg in 1940, none survived the Holocaust.

Elisabeth’s second sister, Rosel Levy, née Gerson, was transported with her husband Ernst Josef Levy, with whom she had been married for only half a year, to the Riga Ghetto on 6 Dec. 1941. They, too, did not survive.

In addition to the Stolpersteine in front of the house at Rutschbahn 15, there are other forms and places of commemoration for Elisabeth and her family: In Vechta, Stolpersteine are located in front of the Gersons’ former house. At the Yad Vashem memorial site, several Pages of Testimony for Elisabeth and Hermann have been submitted. Moreover, the author Ulrich Behne portrayed their faith in his work Die Viehhändlerfamilien Gerson und das Schicksal der jüdischen Gemeinde zu Vechta ("The livestock trading families Gerson and the fate of the Jewish Community in Vechta").


Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Tom Koltermann

Quellen: Ulrich Behne: Die Viehhändlerfamilien Gerson und das Schicksal der jüdischen Gemeinde zu Vechta, Diepholz 2010; Zeitungsartikel "Der Israelit" 23.4.1936, S.14/ 2.1.1934, S.12, http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/pageview/2539987 (letzter Aufruf 28.7.2014); Jörg Paulsen: Erinnerungsbuch: ein Verzeichnis der von der nationalsozialistischen Judenverfolgung betroffen Einwohner der Stadt Oldenburg 1933–45, Bremen 2001, S.75, 140; Zeitungsartikel "Oldenburgische Volkszeitung" vom 23.4.1935 eingescannt von Ulrich Behne; . Enno Meyer: Die im Jahre 1933 in der Stadt Oldenburg i. O. ansässigen jüdischen Familien, Stalling 1971, S.18; Christoph Franke: Die Rolle der Devisenstellen bei der Enteignung der Juden. In: Katharina Stengel (Hrsg.): Die staatliche Enteignung der Juden im Nationalsozialismus. Frankfurt a.M. 2007, S.81; Leo Trepp: Die Oldenburger Judenschaft: Bild und Vorbild jüdischen Seins und Werdens in Deutschland, Oldenburg 1973, S.324, 340; Auskunft per Mail von Monika Liebscher von der Gedenkstätte KZ Sachsenhausen am 16.7.2014; StaHH, 314-15 Akten des Oberfinanzpräsidenten, R1940/426 Sicherungsanordnung Emanuel Gerson und R1940/425 Sicherungsanordnung; StaHH, 351-11Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 6917 Emanuel Gerson und 33988 Hermann Silbiger; StaHH, 213-1 Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, 1202 Antrag auf Befreiung von der Beibringung des Ehefähigkeitszeugnisses für Ausländer; StaHH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 992b, Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg, Kultussteuerkarte Hermann Silbiger; StaHH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 992e2, Deportationslisten; Hamburger Adressbücher (HAB) 1939–1942; http://www.bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch/de873612 (letzter Aufruf 28.7.14)