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Holocaust Memorial Education Center

Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center

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Survivor Profile

SIEGBERT APPEL

SIEGBERT

APPEL

(1906 - 1944)

PRE-WAR NAME:

SIEGBERT APPEL

PLACE OF BIRTH:

BORKEN, GERMANY

DATE OF BIRTH:

OCTOBER 26, 1906

LOCATION(s) BEFORE THE WAR:

BORKEN, GERMANY

LOCATION(s) DURING THE WAR:

PALESTINE; WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NEW YORK

STATUS:

REFUGEE

  • BIOGRAPHY BY Michelle Edgar, granddaughter

    My grandfather, Siegbert Appel, was born on October 26, 1906 in Borken, Germany. He had one younger brother, Alfred. The family raised cattle and owned a butcher store in their hometown in Germany. Siegbert’s family was very religious and thus identified with the Orthodox Jewish faith.  Both Siegbert and Alfred went to a Yeshiva High School in Frankfurt, Germany. Siegbert’s parents had hoped he would become a Rabbi.

     

    In 1933, the government in Germany declared that kosher meat could not be sold. The Appel family tried to continued to sell non-kosher meat but eventually were forced out of business. Looking for a more hopeful future, Alfred, his brother arrived first in the United States in 1935 and moved to Washington Heights, New York. Siegbert went to Israel from 1932 to 1934. He returned to Germany and then arrived New York December 29, 1936, and moved to the Bronx. 

     

     Siegbert sponsored  his longtime girlfriend, Edith Israel to come to the United States. They lived in close proximity in Germany before the war. Edith arrived in October 1938.  They married in 1939 and had a son, Harry in 1942. Siegbert and Edith started a dress shop out of their apartment in Washington Heights.  Siegbert died in 1944 due to kidney disease. Siegbert’s father, Laser Appel’s five siblings perished in the Holocaust. They were unable to get out of Germany. Fortunately, Laser and his wife Bertha survived.

    Editor’s Note

    Refer to Alfred Appel’s video Testimony in Related Media for the family story.

    Refer to granddaughter, Michelle Edgar in Voices of the Descendants.

  • SURVIVOR INTERvIEW:

    Refer to Biography above by Michele Edgar, granddaughter.

  • Sources and Credits:

    Credits:

    Biography by Michelle Edgar, granddaughter; Digital historic and family photographs and documents donated by Harry Rosenthal, son and Michelle Edgar, granddaughter.

    The SSBJCC Holocaust Memorial and Education Center gratefully acknowledges donation of video “Michelle Edgar’s Great Uncle.” 

RELATED MEDIA