CHAPTER 1 - A Jewish Home in Berlin

Abstract

This chapter discusses the early life of F. E. Simon's life after Second World War. Two wars and their aftermath have altered beyond recognition the Berlin in which Franz Simon was born on July 2nd, 1893; a savage regime obliterated the Jewish community in which he grew up. Those who knew Franz in his boyhood remember him as a shy, quiet, self-contained boy, showing no signs of the talents for which his father watched so eagerly. As he looked around at Germany's industrial achievements, Herr Simon dreamed of a technical career for his son and showered him with expensive toys in the hope of kindling his interest. Franz enjoyed them but not more than any other boy and refused to be hurried, making his leisurely, unspectacular way through the early years of reading, writing, and arithmetic in the Vorschule of the Kaiser Wilhelm Reform Gymnasium. German children start school at the age of six, but since Franz's birthday was in July and the school year started in April, he was nearly seven when he entered the Vorschule, the equivalent of an English primary school. Franz's lifelong distaste for memorizing dull facts and the unimaginative way in which they were presented led to such an open hatred of the Classics and of those who taught them that he brought upon his head retributive measures that amounted almost to persecution. Bored and frustrated, he isolated himself from pupils and teachers alike and gained a reputation for haughtiness and eccentricity, neither of which qualities is calculated to win popularity at school. Mathematics and physics were the only subjects in which he took any interest.