Abraham Fuss

Abraham Fuss was born on 19 March 1891 in Mościska (Mostyska) in Galicia. His parents were Jutta, née Reif, and Nathan Fuss. In the late 1920s he lived in Berlin, where he met his future wife Hildegard Schmul. They married in December 1928. In early 1930 their daughter Ruth was born and one year later, her sister Thea. The family moved to Fehrbelliner Strasse 83 (today number 81) in Berlin-Mitte. Abraham and his wife ran a successful tailor’s shop in their apartment, with four employees and several assistants.

Abraham Fuss was deported as early as 1938, during the Nazis’ “Polish campaign” – the sudden and violent expulsion of 17,000 Jewish Poles from the German Reich – to Zbąszyń (Bentschen), where he was interned. He returned to Berlin on his release in 1939 but was re-arrested and deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp on 13 September 1939.

Fearing further Nazi repression, his pregnant wife fled to Sweden. Beforehand, she placed Ruth and Thea in the care of their grandfather. After his deportation, they were taken to the Jewish children’s home in Fehrbelliner Strasse, where they lived until its closure in 1942. Their mother Hildegard’s constant efforts to improve their and their father’s situations, at best by organising their emigration, came to nothing.

On 28 May 1942 Abraham Fuss was shot “at command” in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On 19 October 1942 his daughters Ruth and Thea were deported to Riga. They were shot in the woods outside Riga after their arrival on 22 October 1942.