
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Donated by Heinz Samson, Switzerland


Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Donated by Heinz Samson, Switzerland









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Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Donated by Heinz Samson, Switzerland
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Donated by Heinz Samson, Switzerland
Heinrich Samson lived in Norden, Germany as had the generations that preceded him dating back to the seventeenth century. He married Paula Lazarus and the couple had two children: Gerda and Heinz.
With the introduction of the Nuremburg laws, fifteen-year-old Heinz was expelled from school. His older sister Gerda married and moved to Belgium.
In November 1938 after the Kristallnacht pogrom, Paula Samson was arrested and beaten by Nazi SA stormtroopers. A short time later she suffered a stroke. These harrowing circumstances hastened the Samsons' decision to leave Germany. Eighteen-year-old Heinz left first for England, expecting his parents to follow. When they parted, his father gave him the signet ring and his mother gave him the locket on a chain. In Heinz's pocket were only 10 marks.
Heinz never saw his parents again. Heinrich and Paula were deported to Minsk in 1941 and murdered. Gerda was deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. The lineage of generations of the Samson family in Norden was severed after three hundred years of prosperous life in the town.
Heinz was the sole survivor of his family. During the war he worked making eyeglasses and gas masks for the British Air Force. After the war, his business flourished and he set up a foundation to memorialize the Jewish community of his hometown of Norden.
The signet ring and the locket remained with him as a precious memento of the parents whom he never saw again.
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Donated by Heinz Samson, Switzerland
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