Sergio de Simone
Sergio de Simone was born on November 29, 1937, and lived with his parents in Naples.
Sergio was only seven years old when he was murdered.
His father, Edoardo de Simone, a naval officer, was Catholic. His mother Gisella, née Perlow, was Jewish.
Edoardo was sent to Dortmund to work as a forced labourer. Gisella felt the situation in Naples was unsafe because of the constant air raids, so during the summer of 1943, she moved with her son Sergio to stay with their relatives in Fiume, a town in Northern Italy.
On March 21, 1944, six-year-old Sergio, his mother, and seven other members of their family - including his cousins Alessandra [Andra] and Tatiana - were arrested.
On April 4, 1944, they were all deported to Auschwitz.
In the spring of 1945, Sergio’s mother was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp.
Gisella was eventually liberated there, but was very ill and only managed returning to Italy in November 1945.
In Italy, Gisella reunited with her husband Edoardo, and gave birth to another son, Mario.
They searched for their other son Sergio, but all they could find out was that he had been sent from Auschwitz to another concentration camp in the West.
At the commemoration ceremony held for year 4 schoolchildren on April 20, 2017 at the Roman-Zeller Platz in Hamburg, Tatiana and Andra shared their last memories of Sergio:
“We were four and six years old when we were sent to Auschwitz. One day the lady who looked after us in the children’s barracks warned us that a man was going to come and ask who would like to go to their mother. On no account were we to say yes. We told Sergio but, sadly, he disregarded the warning. He went off with a group of 20 children and we never saw him again.”
The street Sergio-de-Simone-Stieg in Hamburg-Burgwedel is named after Sergio.