Erich Schlesinger

Erich Schlesinger was born on November 26, 1879 in Berlin. He came from a Berlin family that had been successful in the jewelry, watch and silverware business for three, maybe even four generations. The Schlesingers owned the silverware factory H. Meyen & Co.

Erich Schlesinger had been married to Edith Ahlfeld since 1919.

The Schlaraffia Berolina clubhouse was not far from the Schlesingers' residential and commercial building. This association, founded in 1859 by Prague actors, is dedicated to the cultivation of friendship, art and humor to this day. It is customary to use a so-called knight's name there, which establishes a connection to actual life outside of the artistic game. The members - about a quarter were Jews - came mainly from the theater milieu and the merchant class in Berlin. In 1937 the club was banned by the Nazis. Erich Schlesinger was a member there. He bore the name "Knight Benvenuto Cellini III". The Italian Renaissance artist Benvenuto Cellini is considered one of the most important goldsmiths in European art history.

According to the files of the Berlin Oberfinanzdirektion, the Schlesingers were forced to give up their apartment and the family business on April 5, 1940. They moved into the house at Sebastianstraße 63. The company was probably taken over by a former employee.

Together with his wife and mother-in-law Rosa Ahlfeld, Erich Schlesinger, who was now blind, was deported to Theresienstadt on August 28, 1942 at the age of 62, where he was murdered on September 10, 1942, on the 49th birthday of his wife Edith.