Simson Scherl

Simson Scherl was born on 21 January 1920 in Berlin, the firstborn child of Julius Scherl, a furniture dealer, and his wife Niche Scherl, née Zanger. Simson had two younger sisters called Pia and Rita. He loved football, and played it outside even in winter when there was snow on the ground. His sister Pia remembers attending a football game with him during the 1936 Olympic Games. One day, Pia asked him to teach her to ride a bicycle. He gladly obliged, but not without arranging a payment for his services first.
Simson was also very musically gifted. He taught himself to play the piano and was an enthusiastic and frequent theatre-goer.
The night of the pogroms changed everything for Simson and his family. His father’s furniture shop, where he also sold antiques, rugs and pianos, was destroyed. Simson’s father never recovered from this shock but died a short time later of a heart attack. Aged 18, Simson was suddenly the man of the house. He helped his mother rebuild and run the business on the ground floor of the building where they lived at Goltz Strasse 35.
Simson’s sisters managed to leave Germany in 1939. He stayed with his mother Niche in Berlin. Thrown out of their apartment in Goltz Strasse because they were Jews, they lived for a short time in accommodation at Winterfeldt Strasse 34.
On 27 November 1941 Simson Scherl and his mother Niche were deported to Riga on the “7th transport” and murdered three days later.
Both his sisters survived the Holocaust and now live in Israel.