The Simon Family
The Jewish family, Simon, who lived at Kampstrasse 34, consisted of the parents, Max and Johanna and their son Alfons Amschel. The house belonged to the ‘Aryan’ German, Johanne Seller.
Max Simon was born in Minden on 20th or 23rd September, 1880. He was a hairdresser by trade but also owned a doll shop and repaired dolls as well. His business rooms were at his home address. On 20th September, 1905, he married Johanne Nußbaum, born 30th May, 1874, who came from Salzkotten in the district of Büren. On 25th November, 1908, she gave birth to her only child, their son Alfons Amschel. He became a butcher and livestock dealer and had a registered firm dealing with animal skins.
From 1933 onwards the family and their businesses suffered due to the increasing activities and measures directed against Jews. In the night of the Pogrom from 9th/10th November, 1938, a mob stormed the living and business premises destroying their contents. The shop window panes were shattered. On 10th November Max and Alfons were arrested and two days later were taken, together with other Minden Jews, to the concentration camp, Buchenwald, where they were brutally assaulted. On15th December, 1938, Max Simon was murdered there. His body was cremated and the Urn buried in the Jewish Cemetary in Minden.
Alfons Simon returned to Minden from Buchenwald and moved in with his mother until, in 1939, they were forced to leave their home and move to the so called Jewish House at Kampstrasse 6. They were both arrested there on 31st March, 1942, and deported to the Warsaw Ghetto. Witnesses saw Johanna Simon there on 24th May, 1942, but all sign of Alfons was lost. Both died in the Warsaw Ghetto.
