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Max Salomon * 1904

Sülldorfer Kirchenweg 34 (Altona, Blankenese)

HIER WOHNTE
MAX SALOMON
JG. 1904
DEPORTIERT 1943
AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET 24.3.1943

further stumbling stones in Sülldorfer Kirchenweg 34:
Johanna Friedländer, Isidor Salomon

Max Salomon, born on 28 May 1904, deported from Berlin to Auschwitz on 12 Mar. 1943, murdered

Sülldorfer Kirchenweg 34

Max Salomon was born in Berlin on 28 May 1904 as the first child of Isidor and Margarethe Salomon, née Kranz. He grew up in Hamburg, where his brother Fritz was born in 1907, and his sister Edith in 1912. The mother, Margarethe Salomon, already died in 1927.

On 26 Apr. 1923, Max Salomon went to the USA aboard the "SS Hansa;” his occupation was listed as "clerk” in the passenger list. Apparently, he lived in the United States for a while. After his return to Germany, he commuted between Berlin and Hamburg, where he was registered with the authorities as residing with his parents at Sülldorfer Kirchenweg 34. Because of an accident, he was fit for gainful employment only to a limited degree and financially dependent on this father.

He was married to Betty, née Grumach, born on 5 Dec. 1895 in Tilsit in East Prussia (today Sovetsk in Russia). She worked as a card file clerk with the Reich Association of Jews (Reichsvereinigung der Juden) in Berlin. The couple lived in Berlin as subtenants at Pariser Strasse 18 a.

In Hamburg, Max Salomon apparently had an affair with Gertrud Selig, the oldest daughter of Hermann Selig, who lived in Hamburg-Wandsbek. On 18 June 1939, Max Salomon became the father of an illegitimate child by the name of Hannele. Gertrud Selig indicated a man named Wilhelm Sieburg as the father of the child, for fear of repressive measures due to Max’ Jewish descent. In the course of alimony proceedings concerning the child, Wilhelm Sieburg stated in evidence that during the period of conception, Gertrud had also "had intercourse with a certain Max, who was Jewish.” This caused Max Salomon to get charged with so-called "racial defilement” ("Rassenschande”). Extramarital intercourse between persons of Jewish and non-Jewish descent was a criminal offense following passage of the Nuremberg Laws on race in 1935. On 23 Dec. 1939, the charges were dropped. Gertrud Selig was born on 1903 in Hamburg to a non-Jewish mother, Elise Prüter. According to the Nazi racial ideology, Gertrud was classified as a child from a so-called "mixed marriage” and therefore as a "Jewish crossbreed of the first degree” ("Mischling 1. Grades”). Max Salomon was released on the same day [the charges against him were dropped].

Apparently, Max Salomon had already been convinced of his paternity before. In the proceedings, he had indicated that he had supported Gertrud Selig with 30 RM (reichsmark) a month and contributed 100 RM toward the delivery, but nevertheless he now wished to clear up the child’s paternity. Also questioned in connection with both proceedings, Gertrud Selig stated on 20 Jan. 1940, "Getting married to Max Salomon has been out of the question so far because I cannot bring myself to convert to the Jewish faith.”

Max’s sister Edith Salomon, herself detained in the Tiefstack external camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp and compelled to perform forced labor, wrote a letter to Gertrud on 26 Feb. 1945, in which she asked to send her bread stamps, sugar, and fat, since she was starving. She was also worried about the whereabouts of Max Salomon. "Throughout, I had before my mind’s eye your image and that of the child as the only humans here close to me and so incredibly dear to my beloved brother.”

After the war, Gertrud Selig filed an application of restitution, also mentioning a promise of marriage that Max Salomon had made to her. Moreover, she argued, Max Salomon and his father had appointed her "administrator for absent heirs” ("Abwesenheitspflegerin”). She submitted a letter by Edith Salomon and the last postcard Max Salomon had sent her: "Dear G.S! We are out-migrating. This is the last message. Affectionate kisses to both of you, Max.”

The application for restitution was rejected.

Together with his wife, Max Salomon was deported from their last apartment on Sybel Strasse 19 in Berlin to Auschwitz on 12 Mar. 1943. Both were murdered there. Max Salomon’s death was officially dated to 24 Mar. 1943.

Gertrud Selig and Hannele survived the war.

Edith Salomon was imprisoned in the Theresienstadt Ghetto from Sept. 1942 until May 1944; she was then deported further to Auschwitz, to the Neuengamme concentration camp in July 1944 and eventually, in Mar. 1945, to the Bergen-Belsen camp, where she was liberated. After the war, she lived in Sweden initially, before emigrating to the USA in Oct. 1947.


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

Stand: April 2018
© Doreen Kobelt

Quellen: 1; 5; StaH 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 27907 (Lorenzen, Gertrud, geb. Selig), 37777 (Salomon, Edith) und 37778 (Salomon, Fritz); Landesarchiv Berlin: A Rep. 358-02, Nr 7584/Film -Nr. 2222, BLHA: Rep. 36 A Oberfinanzpräsident Berlin- Brandenburg II Nr. 33034; Auskunft von Hildegard Thevs, 26.10.2012.
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