Sylvester Herrmann, also known as Sylve, Silver or Silvain Herrmann, was born 16 July 1880 in Greimerath bei Trier in Germany. He was a son of Bernhard Herrmann and Babette Kallmann. On 3 January 1911 he married in Bayentahal (Cologne), Lina Marx, who was born there 20 February 1883 as daughter of Moses Marx and Sara Wurzweiler. The couple had two daughters, namely Erna and Hildegard.
Erna Herrmann was born 16 March 1912 in Niederzerf (Germany), married Leo Hanau, who was born 27 January 1904. After their marriage they emigrated to the USA where Erna passed in 1991 and Leo in 2003. Erna and Leo had two children.
Hildegard Herrmann was born 21 January 1914 in Niederzerf (Germany), but lived with her parents in Losheim. At the age of 16, she came to Rotterdam, where she started to work as shorthand typist. On 8 December 1930 she was registered at the address Mathenesserlaan 196A in Rotterdam. She moved 7 October 1932 to ‘s-Gravendijksewal 75C and per 1 March 1935 to Mauritsweg 25.
On 23 December 1936 she married in Rotterdam Marijn van Dantzig, born 8 December 1904 in Amsterdam as son of Abraham van Dantzig and Bertha de Kadt, Abraham van Dantzig resided in Frankfurt am Main with his 2nd non-Jewish wife as Bertha de Kadt passed away already in 1920. When Marijn was 19 years old, he arrived 11 February 1924 from Frankfurt am Main in Rotterdam, where he was going to live with his uncle and aunt Abraham van Dantzig and Anna de Kadt at Claes de Vrieselaan 158B. In the factory for working clothes and under wear, which his uncle owned and which was located at Gedempte Binnenrotte in Rotterdam, he was educated for the trade in textiles, where he was working as a trainee. Later, after the bombardment on Rotterdam 14 May 1940 when also the factory of his uncle was destroyed, he became a teacher and joined the municipality.
After their marriage, Hildegard Herrmann and her husband Marijn van Dantzig lived at Dordtschelaan 232C in Rotterdam. Marijn was exempted from deportation “because of function” by the Jewish Council, as he was a teacher since 26 September 1941. Hildgard then worked as a member of the nursing service at the Jewish Council and did pastoral work. She too was exempted from deportation because of funcion of her spouse. Both have survived the Holocaust and returned in September 1946 in Rotterdam again in their former address at Dordtschelaan.
Sylvester Herrmann and his wife Lina Marx arrived 26 April 1939 from their residence Losheim in Germany in Holland, probably in Rotterda. It is not impossible that Sylve and Lina had to evacuate in the course of 1940, due to the circumstances to Waddixveen, where they ended up at Bloemendaalscheweg 89 with the German born Kurt Walter Roberg. Per 30 January 1941 they moved to Bothastraat 7 in Gouda and their last known address in Gouda became Sophiastraat 47.
Lina Marx passed away in Gouda on 9 June 1942. She was interred there two days later but she has been reburried in 1976 in the Jewish Cemetery of Wageningen.
On 27 February 1943, Sylvester Herrmann was taken ill in the Jewish Hospital at Schietbaanlaan 42 in Rotterdam, where he probably had to stayh for several weeks. After his return at Sophiastraat 47 in Gouda, he was taken 14 April 1943 from there and deported to Westerbork and six days later, on 20 April he was put on transport to Theresienstadt. There he lost his life on 146 November 1943.
Sources among others: City archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards od Abraham van Dantzig, Hildegard Herrmann and Marijn van Dantzig; City archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Abraham van Dantzig; website wiewaswie.nl regarding the families of Van Dantizigand De Kadt; website of My Heritage re Erna Herrmann and Leo Hanau; Regional Archive of Mid-Holland in Gouda, certificate of death nr. 234 dated 11 June 1942 for Lina Herrmann-Marx, made out by the municipality of Gouda; website Het Stenen Archief, gravestone of Lina Marx; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Sylvester Herrmann, Lina Herrmann-Marx, Marijn van Dantzig and Hildegard Herrmann, and others, the Memorial Gedenkbuch, Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945 and Tom Verwaijen, among others author of the book Gouda volume II, pages 312 and further.