Samuel Lazarus

On October 13, 1887, Samuel Lazarus was born in Stapelmoor, East Frisia. The second born of his Dutch parents Salomon Lazarus and Sophie Lazarus, née de Levie, he had another older brother Simon (June 23, 1886-unknown), a younger sister Rosa (December 11, 1893-unknown), and a younger brother Paul (October 19, 1908-unknown). After marrying Gerta Lazarus, née Jacobs, who was also born in Stapelmoor on March 19 1900, he lived with her at Damm 30 in Oldenburg from May 20, 1922. There their three children Jan (09 April 1923-unknown), Claus (21 February 1925-04 December 1925), and Ilse (29 August 1926-unknown) were born. The eldest son Jan was able to emigrate to England via Holland on a transport for children on November 15, 1938. Later Jan fought against the Germans as a soldier in the English Army in World War II. He survived and was later employed as an interpreter. Their second son Claus did not even live to be a year old. Lazarus' daughter Ilse was deaf and dumb and after her stay in the Israelitische Taubstummenanstalt Berlin-Weißensee returned to her parents in 1941, who were living in Hamburg at the time. She was deported to Theresienstadt on June 23, 1943, and from there was taken to Auschwitz, where she was murdered.

Samuel Lazarus held Dutch citizenship. However, Samuel took German citizenship to become a German soldier. Due to his professional experience with horses, he served the Oldenburg Cavalry Unit as a dispatch rider, in which he was awarded the Iron Cross I. and II. Class was honored. Due to a severe head injury he suffered in Russia, he was unable to continue fighting and was awarded the Silver Wounded Badge.

Until October 1938 Samuel Lazarus was active in the cattle trade and also ran the cattle and horse shop Samuel Lazarus at Damm 30 in Oldenburg. Concerned by the forbidden participation of Jewish traders* in livestock markets in Oldenburg, Samuel wrote a letter to the Ministry of the Interior on August 20, 1935. In this letter he asked the ministry for communication, whether there were regulations over the prohibition to sell cattle to Jewish dealers*innen and how these regulations would be to be justified.

After his itinerant trade license and the house were confiscated as "expiation" in 1938, the family could only draw on their savings. The confiscation of his house caused them to move to the house at Donnerschweer Straße 120 in Oldenburg. There they lived from March 1938 to May 1940. On May 7, Samuel and Gerta moved for two weeks to Gerta's sister in Sonsbeck in the Rhineland. Due to the threat of the sister's deportation, the two had to leave and lived successively in three places in Hamburg. First they moved to Moltkestraße 55, then to a so-called "Judenhaus" at Große Bergstraße 108, into which Ilse then also moved. Finally, they lived at Försterweg 43 in Hamburg-Stellingen. When Samuel lived in Försterweg, the Jews were already severely restricted in their rights, so that he, in order to survive, made coffins for the Jewish community there.

After Samuel Lazarus, a former soldier, personally approached the Gestapo, he was able to delay the deportation of his family 13 times due to his service in the First World War. Only when a special train was assembled from former front-line soldiers of the First World War and people over 65 years of age, Samuel could no longer prevent the deportation of Ilse, Gerta and him. They were taken to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on June 23, 1943, and held there for 15 months. Then, when Ilse was called up during a roll call for deportation to Ausschwitz, Gerta also joined her daughter. They reached Auschwitz-Birkenau on October 25, 1944, and were probably murdered a short time later. Three months later, Samuel Lazarus' prisoner number was also called. In order to prevent his deportation, he covered the number on his prisoner's clothing and shouted, "He's already dead," so that his number was removed from the deportation list. From that moment on, there was no place for him to sleep or food.

For three months, until the liberation of the Theresienstadt camp by the Red Army on May 8, 1945, Samuel was able to keep himself alive by eating kitchen scraps. At that point, he weighed only 35 kilograms. After his liberation by the Red Army, Samuel Lazarus moved temporarily to Rothenbaumchaussee 217 in Hamburg for about a month on September 12, 1945. He then returned to Oldenburg on October 19, 1945. Together with his son Jan, he rebuilt a livestock business with the name "Lazarus & Sohn" in Oldenburg. Jan came back to Oldenburg in 1946 after learning of his father's survival.