THE MEN'S CLOTHING STORE AND FACTORY
Zysia Pressman (with hat) and two of his
employees
Berlin, Germany
bef 1933
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Approximate translation of business advertisement:
Note! Pay attention to Number 83a.
Note!
If you want to go about really well and cheaply dressed,
then buy only in the Gentlemen's Clothing House S.
Pressman, Berlin C54, Linienstrasse 83a. Phone nmber:
Norden 11091.Many Ulster, Paletots, rubber (rain) coats,
Joppen, and very inexpensive trousers, their own
production. Manufactured according to measure, also of
their own material. Please look for the house number. |
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"In January of 1933, my family
was living well in Berlin, the capital of Germany. My
mother was forty years old, my father thirty-nine, my
brother Hermann was eighteen, and I was four. Jews
constituted 4 percent of the city’s 4.2 million people
and less than 1 percent of the 66 million in the country. My parents had
lived and worked in Berlin since 1919. Father rented
and managed under his German first name the Siegmund
Pressman Herren Kleider Fabrik, a men's clothing store
and factory. It was located at 135
Skalitzer Strasse, the former
location of the Dresdner Bank. My father manufactured
men's clothing in back rooms for sale in the store. My
mother and Hermann helped out in the store. In
addition, my parents had recently bought a building
consisting of forty apartments and four stores at 26
Koepenicker Strasse as an investment. We lived in a
rented apartment at another address, 88-99 Kottbusser
Damm, where full-time maids did the housework."
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