Hermann Simon Collection

This collection documents the significant life experiences, and to a lesser extent, the profession of Hermann Simon. In addition, it provides some material on the lives of his family members and some of his colleagues. The collection includes a large amount of correspondence, as well as publications and clippings, notes and notebooks, family trees and histories, and some legal documents.

The primary focus of this collection is the life of Hermann Simon. Among the papers of this collection are a copious amount of correspondence relating to his early life, education, and time spent in the United States military during World War II. Letters that mention Simon's early life and university education comprise Series I. Information on these aspects of his life may be accumulated from the correspondence between Simon and his family members. Letters from Simon home to his family are especially detailed during the years he studied in Berlin. These letters address not only lectures he attended or other matters related to his studies, but also frequently discuss the political and economic changes during the interwar years. His family's situation in Frankfurt is also made clear in this correspondence. Further material on his studies may be found in Series IV: Education, which holds Simon's notes on his legal studies. Detailed correspondence relating to Simon's years in the United States Army during World War II are available in Series II. A small amount of material is also present regarding Hermann Simon's legal practice. This includes some legal publications found in Series V, papers depicting his interest in postwar restitution work in Subseries 2 of Series VI, and some legal correspondence found among Subseries 3 of Series VI.

This collection holds a considerable amount of material on the Simon family and its history. Much information on the lives of Hermann Simon's parents, Emil and Gertrude ("Gerty") Simon, and his brother, Friedrich ("Friedel") Simon, may be gleaned from the correspondence of Series I. Further information on the Simon family and their forebears will be found in various areas of the collection. Series III includes a comprehensive memoir of Jakob Epstein, Gerty Simon's father. This memoir recounts his life in detail, placing the significant events of his life in context with frequent observations of notable historical events. In addition, it provides information on other family members, such as his father, grandfather, and children. A second, but considerably less voluminous, memoir on the Simon side of the family is also present in this collection, in Subseries 2 of Series VI.

Researchers should note that many folders in Series I-IV contain typed English summaries of the contents of each folder.