Erwin Süßmann

Erwin Süßmann was born in Brockau, Breslau, Lower Silesia in Germany, on 24th January 1898. He was the second son and third child of Bernhard Süßmann (*01.08.1862 Schildberg, Kr. Kempen, Posen - 20.06.1929) and Henriette Süßmann née Knobloch (*14.11.1872 Pudewitz, Kr. Schroda, Posen - ?). Erwin's older sister Hertha Pick née Süßmann died aged only 24 in 1921; his elder brother Herbert was 17 months his senior and his younger sister was Gertrud Pick nee Süßmann who emigrated to Israel and was the mother of 10 children.

As a child, Erwin dreamed of emigrating to Eretz Israel. For that reason, he joined the Blue and White Zionist youth movement. He emigrated from Germany to Israel as a young adult and worked in agriculture.

His father originally trained as a butcher, the family business, then went to New York for a short period in 1880, married Henriette Knobloch in 1894 in Pudewitz and was involved in running the Knobloch's family clothing business in Berlin, which was later expropriated by the Nazis. He also owned a farming estate in Silesia.

Erwin's paternal uncle Julius Süßmann (30.09.1874 Schildberg - 11.1944 Auschwitz) owned a large horse ranch in Braunau, Kr. Lüben in Silesia which he was forced to sell in 1935. He and his wife Lissy had no children of their own. They were a favourite destination for their nieces and nephews and Erwin learned a great deal about agriculture from his uncle and from his studies and wanted to share his knowledge with other farmers.

For that reason, he taught agriculture in Mikveh Israel. (Mikve Israel was the first Jewish agricultural school. The school was established in 1870 by Karl Netter for the purpose of training the young generation for agricultural settlement. After many hardships, a farm was set up with a chicken coop, cow shed, vineyards and winery.)

Erwin's CV has survived. He wrote that after finishing school, in 1917/18 he was enlisted in the artillery. After WWI he worked as a farmer. From Oct. 1, 1918 up to Sept. 30, 1919 he worked as an unsalaried clerk in Braunau and in Boguslawitz, Breslau, from Oct. 1, 1919 to Sept. 30, 1920. During these years of his apprenticeship he secured a practical and theoretical knowledge which enabled him to take over his father’s estate Friedersdorf am Queis in Strehlen, Silesia. There he carried on intensive dairy farming, connected with the breeding of horses, cattle, and pigs on a large scale. Moreover, a considerable cultivation of beetroot and potatoes/seed-planting and after-planting was carried on.

Erwin states that he sold, for family reasons, the estate in 1925 and took over the management of the estate of Middle-and Lower-Braunau, Lüben, 3000 acres large remaining there up to the end of 1936.

Through the "aryanisation" of the business in Germany he was compelled to throw up his occupation and to leave the country.

Since the beginning of 1937, Erwin was in Yugoslavia. First he was in Zaton Mali near Dubrovnik, Dalmatia and lastly on the estate Hertenstein near Slovenjgradez/Slovenia.

he planned to emigrate to Australia, if possible.

The situation in Berlin became most unpleasant. Erwin's niece Brigitte remembers that in about 1936 and she was about 12 years old, her beloved "Onkel Erwin", who would often visit for Sunday dinner, came to their apartment when she was home alone, all bloody, after being held (and beaten) by the Gestapo for several days. She remembers he just fell in to the doorway when she opened the door. Brigitte ran to fetch her parents.

Erwin's nephew Hans-Ulrich 'Uli' Süßmann (1921 Berlin - 1949 Israel), Herbert's son, studied agriculture at a Jewish Zionist school in Berlin and escaped with Herbert to Palestine just in time, while Herbert's daughter Brigitte (born in 1925) was sent alone to a place of refuge in Sweden.

The difficult living conditions in Eretz Israel in the early 20th century, and the lack of medication and food affected his health and he became ill, suffering from tuberculosis. His health deteriorated to a point where his friends couldn’t bear to see him suffering any longer and pressured him to return to Germany for treatment which he did, but his heart was in Eretz Israel and he made several attempts to return that were unsuccessful out due to his poor health.

On the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany, Erwin joined the Partisans (underground resistance). When the first holocaust survivors arrived in Eretz Israel, his family there learned that Erwin married a young partisan woman and become a partisan leader.

In the meantime, when the war ended, Erwin's young niece who had survived in Sweden, heard the news that her uncle Erwin had been shot in Croatia in 1941, and that his partner, a very brave woman, Annemarie Wolff-Richter https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annemarie_Wolff-Richter, was sent to a death camp. Her daughter, Ursula Wolff (1929 - 2009), who regarded Erwin as her father, was left an orphan and miraculously survived alone in Croatia. She married Ernst Ludwig Heuss, the son of the first president of West Germany, Theodor Heuss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Heuss.

References: http://www.onjewishmatters.com/our-history.html with amendments based on information from his niece Brigitte and from the family of his partner Annemarie Wolff-Richter.