Simon Scheffel (Sheftel) Dienstag (1852–1917)

Born in Schrimm (Śrem), Province of Posen, Prussia
Died in Görlitz, Silesia, Prussia

Simon Scheffel Dienstag was born on 6 April 1852 in Schrimm (Śrem), in the Prussian Province of Posen, into a Jewish merchant family. His father, David Dienstag, was a partner in the firm Gebrüder Dienstag, a commercial enterprise that operated in the region during the mid-19th century. Records from 1878 show both David and Simon (“Scheftel”) listed in an official bankruptcy announcement for their firm — a reminder of the volatility of small Jewish businesses in the late Prussian period.

After the decline of the family business, Simon moved westward to Görlitz, joining a wave of Jewish families from the Posen region who resettled in Silesian cities after residence restrictions were lifted. By the early 1880s, Simon was established as a merchant (Kaufmann) in Görlitz, where he and his first wife, Julie Auguste (Grunert) Dienstag (1855–1887), helped to rebuild Jewish life in a city that had only recently reopened to Jewish settlement after nearly 450 years of exclusion.

Simon and Julie lived at Mittelstraße 19²r, where Simon worked as a trader in paper and packaging goods. Together, they had several children: Martin (1877–1943), Jacques (1878–1942), Willy (1881–1957), and Leonhard (1884–1942). In 1887, tragedy struck when Julie died in childbirth with their youngest daughter, Auguste, who survived only a few days. Mother and child were buried together in the Görlitz Jewish Cemetery.

Following Julie’s death, Simon continued to raise his sons in Görlitz and eventually remarried. His second wife, Henriette (née Blumenthal) Dienstag (1864–1924), was also born in Schrimm, linking the two families back to their shared Posen roots. Together, they had a daughter, Erna (1894–1942), who married Benno Berger — both of whom were later deported and murdered in Auschwitz.

By the early 1900s, Simon was living and working at Salomonstraße 39³, operating his paper and packaging business (Tüten und Packpapier), which was recorded in local directories. His professional and personal life reflected the trajectory of Görlitz’s Jewish community during the late imperial period — integrated into the city’s economy yet maintaining close family and religious ties within the Jewish congregation.

Simon died on 4 July 1917 at the age of 65. He was buried in the Görlitz Jewish Cemetery, where his gravestone — inscribed in both Hebrew and German — honors him as a beloved husband, father, brother, and grandfather. His grave rests among those of his first wife Julie, their infant daughter Auguste, and several of their descendants. The Dienstag, Schwalbe, Krzywynos, and Schindler families, all related through marriage, are interred nearby, forming one of the cemetery’s most interconnected family groupings.

© Lauren Leiderman