Simon Kissinger

Simon Kissinger was born in Rödelsee in Lower Franconia on February 18, 1859. He was the son of the merchants Abraham and Fanni Kissinger. At the age of 20, after training at the Israelitische Lehrerbildungsanstalt (ILBA, Jewish Teacher Training Institute) in Würzburg, he took a job teaching at Jewish elementary school in Urspringen. In 1884 he married Babette Fränkel. Between 1888 and 1897 the couple had seven children, including their sons Ferdinand and Julius, who, like their father, became teachers. Simon Kissinger was well-known and respected in the whole town. He was involved in the Jewish community as a teacher, cantor and leader of prayer. In 1903, he was given honorary citizenship of Urspringen to mark his 25th anniversary as a teacher. He carried on working after reaching retirement age because no replacement could be found for him; he was finally able to retire in 1929. In the 1930s, Simon Kissinger went to live with his sons Julius and Ferdinand in Munich. He lived with Julius Kissinger’s family in an apartment on the first floor of Bürkleinstraße 16 (today 20). At nearly 80 year of age he had to watch as Ferdinand Kissinger was deported to Dachau concentration camp on November 10, 1938 in the course of the “Kristallnacht” pogroms and not released until December. Simon Kissinger died on February 15, 1939 of influenza and was buried in the New Jewish Cemetery in Munich. Only a few of his large family survived the Nazi period. His daughters Irma and Bella emigrated to New York, and his daughter Jenny went to Palestine. All his other children were murdered, including his sons Ferdinand and Julius Kissinger, Julius Kissinger’s wife Jenny and their two children Albert and Manfred.(text Felicia Englmann, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)