Why we are interested in the story of Arthur und Eugenie Samuel

Why we’ve devoted ourselves to studying the past experiences of our neighbors in Cadenberge

With increasing reports of attacks against Jewish institutions and other anti-Semitic motivated violence and crimes over the past few years, our interest in the fortunes of Arthur Samuel and his wife Eugenie grew, especially as to how they apparently managed to survive the cruel period of Hitler fascism in Cadenberge.

Clearly, it must have been an unusual situation that prevailed in our home community at the time. We wanted to learn more about it.

Were there gaps in the Nazis' extermination machinery? Did the Samuels succeed in escaping the control network of the Gestapo and SS by virtue of their everyday behaviour? Were they helped by friends and neighbors? Or was there simply a series of happy coincidences for the couple?

After our professional activities ended a few years ago, more frequent opportunities arose for us to talk about the experiences of our childhood and adolescent years in Geversdorf and Cadenberge. And this stimulated our interest in learning more about the political, cultural and economic conditions of the past in the villages on the Lower Elbe.

Documents on marital status; during the Nazi era and later in August 1952. The marriage took place in October 1910 in Otterndorf.
(Dokumentiert nach Unterlagen des Niedersächsischen Staatsarchivs Stade, bzw. nach Unterlagen des Archivs des Landkreises Cuxhaven in Otterndorf.) Niedersächsischen Staatsarchivs Stade, bzw. nach Unterlagen des Archivs des Landkreises Cuxhaven in Otterndorf.)

A Revelation and Follow-up Research

We quickly came across a small photo brochure about restaurants and commercial buildings in the area. It included the house "Kronen-Apotheke, Bahnhofstr. 2" (Kronen Pharmacy) with a reference to its former owner, Arthur Samuel. This information was new to us. We were familiar with the pharmacy building because, as children, we had often carried our doctor's prescriptions up the small steps.

It was surprising, however, that the person who had this still beautiful and striking house built near the entrance to the village was Arthur Samuel.

In the early 1960s, we often played football, hockey or badminton with the neighborhood boys on the Heideweg in front of our house, where we were only occasionally interrupted by a passing car. But from time to time, strollers were also on the road, still unpaved at the time, heading to and fro in the direction of the Wingst forest.

Regularly among them was an elderly gentleman in a loden coat and hat who walked his dog, apparently an Airedale Terrier. This was Arthur Samuel, our neighbor from the Osterstraße; Jewish, as we later learned.

As children, we had no idea and never had a thought about who or what a "Jew" was. And it was not yet an acceptable time for us to talk about what was then still the "recent past", about Nazis, war, genocide and the Holocaust.

As a result, we are confronting these questions today with intensity.

For some time, we have been gathering data, documents, and reports about the lives of our neighbors, Arthur Samuel and his wife Eugenie, and organizing them chronologically. Of course, this work is challenging after almost a century. There are no coherent presentations. In addition, there is little information to be found on the Internet.

We discovered the first photos and newspaper clippings through our contact with the local historian Günter Lunden. Much more enlightening were the results of an examination of related documents which are available in the state archive in the city of Stade.

Personal Memories and Community Collaboration

Additionally, we have discovered that the memories of Arthur and Eugenie persist within some Cadenberge families; however, contemporary witnesses are now virtually non-existent.

So, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that following the initial publications of our work in the "Niederelbe-Zeitung" and with a report on NDR (North German Broadcasting) regional television, contact was made with Jonny Tiedemann, a 98-year-old former Cadenberge resident. During the Nazi era, Mr. Tiedemann delivered bread products to the Samuels as a messenger boy for a bakery. Through his son, we were able to conduct an interview with this contemporary witness in October 2021; unfortunately, Jonny has since passed away.

An indirect eyewitness account emerged after the initial stages of our research, indicating that many families in the town secretly provided food to Arthur Samuel.

By a remarkably fortunate circumstance, in mid-2021 we connected with Henry Irwig, the Samuels’ great nephew who now lives in the USA and with whom we have established a wonderful working relationship. We are pleased that we were able to convince him to join us in searching for clues as coauthor and editor of this website. Henry's memories and knowledge are invaluable to this work.

Together with him, we have engaged with the mayors of the local communities to explore the potential for developing remembrance activities for school students in the forthcoming years.

We are particularly grateful to the municipality of Cadenberge and the joint municipality of Hadeln for their constructive interest and support in our efforts to learn more about this significant period in the lives of Arthur and Eugenie Samuel and the entire population of our hometown.