Simon Langner papers

Simon Langner was born in August, 1905 in Kalisz, Poland to Heinrich and Sofia Langner. He had at least three siblings; Stella Langner Grosman Gerszanowicz, Abram Langner, and Rysia Langner. After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Simon lived in the Łódź ghetto, where he met and married Paula Magnuszewska in 1939, and the couple had a child in 1940. In 1942, the couple were sent to the Rzeszów ghetto, where Paula was ordered to the labor office for mandatory labor, and in doing so would require her to give her child away to an asylum. Instead, Paula volunteered for the gas chamber, and was sent with her child to the Majdanek concentration camp, where they were both killed. Simon, meanwhile was sent to Płaszów concentration camp in 1942, and was later sent to Mauthausen in 1944, where he remained until he was liberated. Simon later lived in Munich, where he became a locksmith and obtained his machinists training certificate in 1950.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of Rose Gelbart

The Simon Langner papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Rose Gelbart, the niece of Simon Langner, in 1995.