Samuel Kleemann and the Paint Manufactory Kreul

Samuel Kleemann, another son of the Jewish teacher Michael Löb Kleemann was born in Forchheim in 1862. The elder brother of Wilhelm Kleemann, he gained a doctorate in chemistry and worked for several years as a chemist in England before buying the Paint Manufactory Kreul, founded in 1838 and in 1900 still operating at the Marktplatz in Forchheim. His first wife died in 1915, his only son Willy fell in the war in 1916. In 1920 Samuel Kleemann sold the factory, from 1921 he lived in Munich, taught at the university and together with his second wife Erna ran a grain dealership. After the Aryanization of the business, the Kleemanns moved back to the home of Erna’s parents in Cologne. From there they were forced to move into a “Jewish retirement home”. Samuel Kleemann died in May 1942 shortly before he was due to be deported. His wife Erna was transported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in June 1942 where she took her own life in July 1942. Samuel Kleemann’s sister Elise Grünbaum (*1860) was also a victim of the Holocaust. The story of her family and her life has been movingly described in the book “Our Days Are Like a Shadow” by Inge Geiler.