Dr. iur. Salomon and Berta Hepner

The Kiev-born lawyer Dr. Salomon Hepner (1893-1943) probably came to Berlin in 1921 with his wife Berta, née Weller (1901-1982), his son Charles (1920-2008), his parents and numerous family members. The couple were recognized as Russian war refugees in 1925. From 1927-33, the small family was registered at Bayerische Str. 8.

The lawyer earned his living as co-owner of several businesses and as managing director of almost all of the family's real estate and public limited companies. At the end of 1933, the remote confiscation of the property by the authorities began, and in January 1935 the Dessau senior public prosecutor's office officially initiated criminal proceedings in which Salomon Hepner, his father Joel Hepner and his cousin Nassanel Essmann were declared enemies of the state and charged as foreign currency criminals.

Salomon Hepner fled with his wife Berta and son Charles to Paris at the end of 1933, where other family members lived. Unfortunately, he did not escape persecution here. On March 4, 1943, he was deported to the Majdanek concentration camp and died in Auschwitz on March 9.

Berta Hepner separated from her husband in Paris and married Jacob Gourary in 1937, with whom she initially went to England, but moved to New York in 1940, where she died in 1982.

The son Charles also emigrated to the USA in 1940. He took part in the Second World War and was buried in a veterans' cemetery in Florida in 2008.