Simon Grünewald

It was only at the urging of his children that Simon Grünewald decided to write his memoirs, providing insights into his childhood and youth. Growing up in Pömbsen/Westphalia, he attended the Jewish Teacher’s Seminary in Hanover and began teaching in the Lüneburger Heide followed by posts in small towns in Silesia and finally, Königshütte. He died in 1961 in Palestine. His son Rabbi Max Grünewald (1899–1992) became the Chief-Rabbi of the Mannheim Synagogue from 1925 to 1938 and the first president of the Leo Baeck Institute New York.

Simon Grünewald describes his childhood in an Orthodox Jewish family in the village of Pömbsen, Westphalia in the 19th century; his elementary and Jewish education; his studies at a Jewish teachers' seminary in Hannover; and his work as a teacher in Sulingen (Lower Saxony) and in Sohrau (Upper Silesia). Included is also Simon Grünewald’s account of his only slightly older aunt: “Aunt Emma – life picture of a village Jewess”. She grew up in Poembsen and lived through the anti-Jewish boycott in 1933 and the pogrom of November 1938 before her deportation to Theresienstadt and her death in a concentration camp. Simon Günewald begins his account of her life with the words, "I can still see her standing in front of me now after 75 years, when she was 13 and I was 6, with her blond braids and her clever blue eyes, the youngest of her numerous siblings in her arms and usually two more on her hand."

Further information and documents

Max Grünewald Collection, AR 7204

https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/5/resources/13235