Siegfried Fritz Simonstein, my cousin, had studied law in Berlin; when the Nazi laws did not allow him to practice he was forced to leave the country, immigrating to Holland.

On 15 July 1942 he was deported from Westerbork together with 1134 men, women and children to Auschwitz. On arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau he was one of the few who were “selected” as fit for labour, joining the more than 400-thousand Jews who were first “processed,” registered and numbered (while the majority “qualified” only for the gas chambers on arrival). 

However, Siegfried Fritz subsequently perished in Auschwitz on 19 August 1942 at 18:50 h, suffering from “Magendarmkatarrh” i.e. gastro enteritis, - 31 years old!  (Ref.: list of Jews murdered in Auschwitz - Source Page number 22396/1942)  Siegfried Fritz is one of fifty-four members of my family who were murdered during the Shoah.

Fritz's father Adolf was moved from the Jüd. Altersheim in Levetzowstr. in Berlin to the Jüd. Krankenhaus, Iranischestr. 2, where he perished on 30 March 1942. He was buried in Berlin Weissensee, Feld N IV, Reihe 5, Grab Nr. 108035.

Fritz's mother Selma, having been forced to fill out a 20-page questionnaire on 15 March 1942 in Berlin, was deported with the 15th Transport on 13 June 1942 to Sobibor, 60 years old.