Corporation

City of Schneidemühl

Transferred by the "government in Schneidemühl from Jewish property" to the Münzkabinett Berlin in 1942.

Acc. 1942/78-91 lists with one exception ancient coins and forgeries, Acc. 1942/108-189 coins and medals mostly of the 19th and 20th century.

Of a total of originally 100 objects today 70 are still attested in the collection (the latter are all online in IKMK).

The whole acquistion process had been reported by the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin to relevant authorities in 1992, including the Jewish Claims Conference. As of 2010 a decision based on the information avilable at the time by the Bundesamte für zentrale Dienste und offene Vermögensfragen (BADV) [previously the Bundesamt zur Regelung offener Vermögensfragen (BARoV)] on keeping the objects in question in the their current place was issued.

Research by Münzkabinett staff in the Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen found an entry in the Postjournal [mail journal] (F 389/1942) referring to a letter by the (unnamed) mayor of Schneidemühl of 21 May 1942, which had been forwarded to the Münzkabinett. Possibly there is or was another letter of 29 August 1942 (date sent or received).

The reference line in the Postjournal mentions the "Münzsammlung von verstorb.[enen] Jud.[en] Samuelsohn u.[nd] Reinhold" [coin collection of the deceased jews Samuelsohn and Reinhold].

It was possible to identify both individuals in letters still kept in the Münzkabinett: Charlotta Samuelsohn and Margarete Reinhold, née Samuelsohn, who both must have been dead by 1942 (mayor's letters of 21 May 1942 and 25 August 1942). We are not able to identify which coins or group of coins exactly (see Acc. nos above) had previously been in their possession.

This collection of coins and a second one of "des Juden Normann“ (the family name is only mentioned in receipts written by the mayor on 7 and 15 September 1942 upon return from Berlin) had been sent from Schneidemühl to Berlin for the Münzkabinett to select from these collections free of charge. The letter also mentions that the coins not selected by the Münzkabinett would be kept in a future local history Museum. Both collections (minus the coins selected) were returned from Berlin to the mayor of Schneidemühl in September 1942.

Ancient coins possibly constitute one such collection, and modern ones the other. As journal notes F 389/1942 are referring to the names Samuelsohn and Reinhold, and possibly have to be linked with Acc. nos. 1942/78-91, this smaller section of ancient coins presumably came from Charlotta Samuelsohn and Margarete Reinhold, née Samuelsohn. The modern coins and medals by exclusion (Acc. nos 1942/108-189) possibly were owned by Mr Normann.

There is no certainty about this interpretation, though, as the sequence of entries in the accession book might have originated from a broad chronological reorganisation of the physical coins in the Münzkabinett upon registration in 1942.

None of the three individual mentioned above does appear in the lists available of citizens murdered in the Holocaust, of those who had died following deportation in 1940, or those were forced into exile. Neither are they mentioned in the lists of known survivors according to Simonstein Cullmann (2006) pp. 176-244 (killed/died), 244-260 (in exile), 261-263 (survived). None of the three is mentioned among the 114 names attested in the census of 17 May 1939 (c. 400 citizens had fled before) (ibid. pp. 345-358).

At least the collection with predominantly modern coins (possibly both) had preciously been confiscated by the Regierungspräsident des Regierungsbezirkes der Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen according to his letter to the director of the Staatliche Museen of 4 May 1942 (Verfügung of 29 May 1941) from Jewish property ("aus jüdischem Besitz").

The case of Schneidemühl (in the Prussian province of Posen, today Piła in Poland) represents a very early example for the organised arrest, later deportation and expropriation of the local Jewish population (within the old territory of the Reich) already in February 1940.

Lit.: Peter Simonstein Cullman, History of the Jewish Community of Schneidemühl: 1641 to the Holocaust (2006); K. Dahmen, Von Weimar zur Diktatur. Das Direktorat Kurt Reglings (1921-1935) und Arthur Suhles kommissarische Leitung (bis 1945) in: B. Weisser (ed.), Münzkabinett. Menschen Münzen Medaillen. Das Kabinett 17 (2020) pp. 111-112, 117-120 (acquisition process and list of objects).

[19.04.2020, K. Dahmen]

https://ikmk.smb.museum/ndp/corporation/8399

10.05.2024