Shimon Nissenbaum

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Shimon Nissenbaum (sometimes Germanized: Sigmund Nissenbaum , Jewish patronymic Shimon Ben Jehuda Laib ) (* July 25, 1926 in Warsaw ; † August 11, 2001 in Konstanz ) was a German entrepreneur, founder and founder of the Israelite religious community in Konstanz.

The Nissenbaum family ran brickworks and a construction company in Warsaw. Shimon was the youngest of five siblings. His parents were Laib Nissenbaum and Hanna Nissenbaum. Siomon Nissenbaum first grew up in the Warsaw district of Praga .

Warsaw Ghetto

After the attack on Poland in 1939, the National Socialists expropriated the family property and forced the relocation of the family to Milastrasse in the Warsaw Ghetto . Shimon took part in the Jewish uprising from April to May 1943 as a youth . After the uprising was put down, the Nissenbaums were transported to the Treblinka extermination camp . There Shimon Nissenbaum's mother and other family members died in the gas chambers. Shimon, his brother Josef, and their father Leib were deported as so-called specialists as forced laborers one after the other to the concentration camps in Majdanek , Budzyń , Auschwitz , Flossenbürg , Hersbruck and finally to a satellite camp of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in Offenburg . When the camp was closed on April 12, 1945, the father and 40 other prisoners who could not be transported were killed by guards. The bodies were brought to the Waldbachfriedhof Offenburg by Russian slave laborers . The transport train in the direction of Lake Constance was attacked by Allied airmen near Geisingen and the locomotive was damaged. The prisoners were divided into groups of eight and had to march on. The column drew further and further apart. Finally Shimon and Josef Nissenbaum were able to flee to French troops near Donaueschingen.

Constancy

Tomb Reb Simon Ben Reb Jehuda Laib Nissenbaum (1926–2001) on the new part of the Jewish cemetery in Konstanz

After the war, Josef and Shimon Nissenbaum planned to leave Europe via Konstanz and Switzerland. Shimon decided to stay there and started working as a junk dealer. He founded a new Jewish community in Konstanz and Freiburg, which he headed until 1988, and then the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG) Konstanz. While Josef emigrated to the USA, Shimon became a successful and well-known businessman on Lake Constance .

In 1964 Nissenbaum had an office high-rise built on the site of the Konstanz synagogue, which was destroyed during the Reichspogromnacht in 1938 , and set up community rooms and a small synagogue in it at his own expense, which are still in operation today.

Foundation in Poland

In 1983 he and his wife Sonja founded the Polish foundation of the Nissenbaum family ( Fundacja Rodziny Nissenbaumów ) with the task of restoring and maintaining Jewish sites in Poland . Since then, more than 200 Jewish cemeteries have been restored and memorials set up with the funds of the foundation. The foundation worked to build the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and organized an accompanying exhibition in the Treblinka extermination camp .

Honors

Nissenbaum received many personal honors, including the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and the Auschwitz Cross ( Krzyż Oświęcimski ).

Web links

Commons : Shimon Nissenbaum  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b founder of the foundation. Sigmund Nissenbaum. In: nissenbaum.pl. Fundacja Rodziny Nissenbaumów, accessed on January 11, 2018 .
  2. Hans-Peter Goergens: A survivor of the Offenburg concentration camp. In: badische-zeitung.de. November 28, 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2018 .
  3. Claudia Rindt: Against forgetting. In: Südkurier , August 8, 2018.