Location
Solinger Straße 10
District
Moabit
Stone was laid
September 2003
Born
31 May 1882 in Berlin
Deportation
on 26 February 1943
to
Auschwitz
Murdered
in Auschwitz
Lina Simon was born on 31 May 1882 in Berlin. In 1911, in her late twenties, she married Benno Simon, a tradesman from East Prussia who was Jewish like her and half a year younger. Lina Simon was not employed. The year after their marriage, her husband took a job as a manager of a laundry service. They lived at Raumerstraße 35 in Prenzlauer Berg, where Lina Simon gave birth to her first son Julius on 16 August 1912. By the time their second son, Rolf Samuel, was born on 2 May 1921, almost nine years had passed – years in which Imperial Germany had started and lost the First World War.
For many years, Lina Simon and her family lived in Prenzlauer Allee, at number 49 for a long time and then at number 41. In around 1934, they moved into a 4-room apartment at Grellstraße 62. Their elder son Julius emigrated to Argentina in the mid-1930s. He lived by the name Julio Simon in Buenos Aires, where he worked as a chauffeur. In 1939 they lost contact and Lina Simon never heard about the birth of her first grandchild in the early 1940s.
In March 1939 Lina’s husband lost his job after the Jewish proprietors were forced to sell the business. The same spring, the family were deprived of their valuables under a new law requiring Jews to submit any jewellery or precious metals they owned to the municipal pawnshops. At about the same time – and probably in direct connection with Benno Simon’s redundancy – the family moved into a ground-floor, backyard apartment at Solinger Straße 10. Benno Simon’s unmarried sisters Ella and Gertrud also moved in here. In October the same year, their second son Rolf Samuel emigrated to Palestine. Later he moved to Kiryat Haim, a suburb of Haifa, where he assusmed Israeli nationality and worked at the docks.
Lina Simon was made to perform forced labour in the Osram lightbulb factory at Rotherstraße 23. Her husband also performed forced labour. In late August 1942 her sisters-in-law were deported to Riga and murdered. Rolf Samuel Simon received one last message from his parents, sent on 28 January 1943, via the Red Cross. A short time later, on 26 February 1943, Lina Simon was deported with her husband on the “30th transport to the East” to Auschwitz. Both were murdered; their dates of death are not known.
For many years, Lina Simon and her family lived in Prenzlauer Allee, at number 49 for a long time and then at number 41. In around 1934, they moved into a 4-room apartment at Grellstraße 62. Their elder son Julius emigrated to Argentina in the mid-1930s. He lived by the name Julio Simon in Buenos Aires, where he worked as a chauffeur. In 1939 they lost contact and Lina Simon never heard about the birth of her first grandchild in the early 1940s.
In March 1939 Lina’s husband lost his job after the Jewish proprietors were forced to sell the business. The same spring, the family were deprived of their valuables under a new law requiring Jews to submit any jewellery or precious metals they owned to the municipal pawnshops. At about the same time – and probably in direct connection with Benno Simon’s redundancy – the family moved into a ground-floor, backyard apartment at Solinger Straße 10. Benno Simon’s unmarried sisters Ella and Gertrud also moved in here. In October the same year, their second son Rolf Samuel emigrated to Palestine. Later he moved to Kiryat Haim, a suburb of Haifa, where he assusmed Israeli nationality and worked at the docks.
Lina Simon was made to perform forced labour in the Osram lightbulb factory at Rotherstraße 23. Her husband also performed forced labour. In late August 1942 her sisters-in-law were deported to Riga and murdered. Rolf Samuel Simon received one last message from his parents, sent on 28 January 1943, via the Red Cross. A short time later, on 26 February 1943, Lina Simon was deported with her husband on the “30th transport to the East” to Auschwitz. Both were murdered; their dates of death are not known.