Wilhelm Samson
* 1875

Wilhelm Samson, born on 2 Aug. 1875, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga

Wilhelm Samson lived with his wife Betty on Breitenfelder Strasse. The couple had a small fortune, which was put under “security order” (“Sicherungsanordnung”). They were forced to pay approx. 8,600 RM (reichsmark) in a “levy on Jewish assets” (“Judenvermögensabgabe”), and from Jan. 1940 onward, they were allowed to spend only 300 RM a month on themselves. While Wilhelm Samson’s brother had emigrated to Uruguay and his son Alfred to South Africa, Wilhelm Samson stayed in Hamburg. Perhaps his plans for emigration failed or perhaps he did not wish to leave his hometown.

On 25 June 1941, Betty Samson passed away, and Wilhelm Samson moved as a subtenant to Grindelallee 153 with Adolf. At the time he received the deportation order, he occupied a room at Schlüterstrasse 22 with Wolff.

After the deportation, the Heinrich Schopman Company auctioned off his household effects, which earned the German Reich net proceeds amounting to a mere 86.48 RM. According to the regulations the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) issued for deportations in each instance, Wilhelm Samson should not have been deported to Riga because he had already passed the maximum age set for this transport, 65 years. In accordance with the ruling of the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) in 1953, he was declared officially dead as of “late 1945.”

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.