Helmut Silberberg

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Helmut "Hello" Silberberg , pseudonym Edmond Mertens , in the USA Edmond Silverberg (born June 8, 1926 in Gelsenkirchen ; † June 26, 2015 in Sag Harbor , New York ) was a German-American entrepreneur who was best known as the best friend of the National Socialists murdered writer Anne Frank became known.

Life

Hello Silberberg, as he is called in Anne Frank's diary , was born in Gelsenkirchen in 1926; he completed elementary school in the Gelsenkirchen-Schalke district . After the so-called “ Reichskristallnacht ” from November 9th to 10th, 1938, the 12-year-old Hello fled to Amsterdam , where he grew up with his grandparents in the Rivierenbuurt district . His father's business was damaged by the Nazis in November 1938; badly mistreated his mother. Later his parents managed to escape from Germany to Belgium .

Helmut Silberberg visited the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam, where he met Anne Frank through his cousin Wilma in June 1942. On July 5, 1942, the day before the Frank family went into hiding in the so-called Secret Annex on Prinsengracht, he had the last personal conversation with Anne Frank.

At the beginning of August 1942, Hello Silberberg narrowly escaped deportation. The curfew for the Jews began at 8 p.m. Hello was caught in a police raid on the street. At the last moment he was able to jump from the vehicle on which he had already been loaded. A few days later he was lucky again. The Gestapo had cordoned off the residential area in which Hello lived and had begun to systematically search the apartments for young Jewish men for the Reich Labor Service . Hello, hidden behind a cupboard, remained undiscovered.

Only a week later he managed to escape from the Netherlands to Belgium. Despite the ban, he took the train with three other Jews to Roermond , where he managed to cross the border. Here, after being separated for four years, he met his parents again, who took him into hiding near the Belgian capital, Brussels . Thanks to a forged ID, Helmut Silberberg became Edmond Mertens . The time in hiding should last 25 months.

On September 3, 1944, the day on which the train with Anne Frank on board departed from Westerbork for Auschwitz , Hello Silberberg experienced the liberation by the Allies.

After the war he worked briefly as a worker in a furniture factory in Brussels. After the Netherlands had also been liberated, he traveled illegally to Holland without having a visa , although he was listed as a stateless person at the time . Here he also found his grandparents, who, hidden in an attic in Amsterdam, had survived the persecution of the Jewish population. Of the close relatives, only his aunt did not survive the Holocaust; she had committed suicide by taking pills in January 1942, shortly before her imminent deportation to the concentration camp .

In December 1947, Hello Silberberg emigrated to the United States; his parents followed him a short time later. Here he kept the first name Edmond and his surname Silberberg became the Americanized Silverberg . In 1948 Edmond Silverberg became a US citizen . From 1950 to 1952 he served as a soldier in the US armed forces in the Korean War .

Shortly after returning to the United States, he married. His marriage to his wife Marylise had two children, daughter Jacqueline and son Robert. Silberberg earned his living as a partner in a sales company for laboratory equipment.

Until his death in June 2015, Hello Silberberg gave lectures on the time of National Socialism and his brief acquaintance with Anne Frank.

Cinematic representation

In 2001, Hello Silberberg was played by Nicolas Kantor in the film Anne Frank .

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Web links

personal data
SURNAME Silberberg, Helmut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Silberberg, Hello (nickname); Mertens, Edmond (pseudonym); Silverberg, Edmond
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American entrepreneur, friend of Anne Frank
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Gelsenkirchen
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 2015
Place of death Sag Harbor , New York