Jewish life in Harxheim: Simon Mayer
Simon, born in Harxheim on April 20, 1919, was the youngest of five siblings. Like the other children in the family, he first attended the local elementary school and then a high school in Mainz.
At the end of 1934 he moved with his parents to Frankfurt. He left Germany on November 19, 1935, when he was only 16 years old. He traveled on the passenger ship Europa from Bremen to New York, where he disembarked on November 25. 1) 2) 3)
Simon moved in with his oldest sister Sara aka Saerri Zapun and her husband Gerhard. Simon later worked as financial secretary. On July 2, 1940, he applied for American citizenship for himself and his future wife Bella, who was still interned in England, and on October 16, 1940, he was registered for induction into the U.S. Army. 6) 7)
Simon married Bella Bravmann, a native of Trabelsdorf near Bamberg, in Manhattan on May 31, 1942. In the years 1934 – 1938 she was a seminarian at the Israelitische Bildungsanstalt in Würzburg, where Simon’s youngest sister Herta was also enrolled from 1934-36. 4) 5) 8)
Simon enlisted in the U.S. Army as an infantryman on Nov. 27, 1942, and was later promoted to corporal. He was killed in action around the island archipelago of Guam on August 6, 1944. 1) 2) 3)
Simon Mayer was buried at Long Island Cimetary in East Fermingdale, Long Island, N.Y., in 1948. His wife Bella, married in second marriage, died on July 24, 2005 in New York. Her grave is located in the same cemetery. 9)
References:
1) Archiv der Verbandsgemeinde Bodenheim; Personenstandsregister der Mairie Harxheim-Gau-Bischofsheim.
2) HHStA Wiesbaden 518-77557.
3) HHStA Wiesbaden 518-54523.
4) www.historisches-unterfranken.uni-wuerzburg.de.
5) Lisberg City Archives/Babelsberg District.
6) United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc…. Taken via Stadtarchiv Mainz. (02/2023).
7) Simon Mayer, in the collection U.S. World War 2 draft records, 1938-1946; Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.. Taken via Stadtarchiv Mainz. (02/2023).
8) Rieber, Angelika u. Till Libertz-Groß, eds.: Rettet zumindest die Kinder – Kindertransporte aus Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt 2018, pp. 246-257.
9) www.findagrave.com, taken via Stadtarchiv Mainz. (02/2023).
