Arthur Salomon
The Jewish business man, Arthur Salomon, was born on 31st August, 1876, the son of Samuel and Henriette Salomon. He visited Primary school after which he completed an apprenticeship as a salesman. He lived in his parent’s house, at Immanuelstrasse 16, until 1927 and after that at Marienstrasse 28. He never married.
He inherited the scrap metal firm, Samuel Salomon at Königswall 5 – 9 together with his brother Max. The firm also owned land at Festungstrasse 10. They dealt in different kinds of used raw materials such as metal, paper, textiles, and glass. Nowadays it would be referred to as a recycling firm. After the death of Max, in 1923, Arthur took the Jewish business man, Max Weinberg, into the firm as his partner. This proved to be so successful that not only the firm flourished but also his private situation. He was able to buy, a larger than normal and very well furnished, four bed roomed house.
The business suffered badly under the anti Jewish boycotts imposed after 1933.
The Nationalist Government realised the value of such a firm with regards to armaments while preparing for war and set about persecuting the Jewish owners to get rid of them and replace them with Aryans. On the night of the Pogrom, 10th November, 1938, Arthur Salomon and many other Jewish men from Minden was taken to the concentration camp at Buchenwald. He was brutally assaulted but freed and allowed to return to Minden but not to his business premises. The firm had been sold under a compulsory order to Fritz Berg, an Aryan Minden business man. The firm, Samuel Salomon, was removed from Register of Businesses on 15th February, 1939.
Different sources give conflicting accounts of what happened to Arthur Salomon. One story is that he was deported to Warsaw on 31st March, 1942, and later went missing in Minsk, but another source names Theresienstadt as the place where he died. The information from the International Lost Persons Bureau at Arolsen states that he was murdered in the extermination camp, Treblinka. According to their records he was taken on Transport XI/1 to the concentration camp, Theresienstadt on 1st August, 1942. On 23rd September, 1942, he was sent from there on Transport-Nr 483-XI/1 to Treblinka. The prisoners transported under the name ‘Bq’ were destined for extermination, according to the Tschechoslowakien Red Cross in May 1951.
Arthur Salomon’s belongings and his wealth were seized, after his deportation, and auctioned off.
His partner, Max Weinberg was murdered in the concentration camp, Dachau and a stone has been laid in his honour in front of Heidestrasse 14.
In the 1950’s, three of Arthur Salomon’s heirs, who had survived the Nazis, made a reimbursement claim against the then owner of the business, Fritz Berg. They were paid the sum of 36,000.- Deutschmarks to withdraw their claim of ownership.