Manufakturwarengeschäft Moritz Seligsohn
The drapery business of Moritz Seligson (also spelled Seligsohn) at Breite Straße 159 in Warin goes back to the business of his father Julius Seligson, who is listed in the 1862 trade directory as a dealer in drapery goods in Langestraße [3][4]. On 31 May 1924 the business was handed over to the firm Sachse & Hannemann (cloth and ready-made clothing) from Gnoien [1]. Moritz Seligson was the last head of the Jewish community of Warin and applied for its dissolution on 27 September 1922. He died on 5 July 1932 at the age of 81, and his sister Clara Seligson, who worked as a piano teacher, died in Warin on 12 April 1939 [2][3]. Compulsion to sell is not documented, for Radschuck gives the owners' age or death as the reason for the end of the businesses owned by Jews in Warin [2].
Father and son: Julius and Moritz Seligson
Julius Seligson, who was born in 1815 in Boizenburg according to the family tree database, married on 29 November 1849 in Warin, and the couple had eight children [3]. According to the note in the register book of the Jewish community of Warin the book was handed over to him as head of the community on 14 February 1861 [5], from which it can be inferred that he took over the office on that day, and a renewed confirmation is named at the latest for 4 August 1866. The trade directory of 1862 lists in Warin a "Manufacturwaarenhdl. Julius Seligson" (dealer in drapery goods) in Langestraße [4]. According to the family tree Julius Seligson died on 6 September 1883 in Warin [3].
His son Moritz was born on 20 September 1850 in Warin and is listed by the family tree for the year 1870 as a merchant with a drapery business at Breite Straße 157, while the other sources (Radschuck, the project database) give the house number 159, so that the house number has come down to us differently [3][2]. Breite Straße is today called Karl-Liebknecht-Platz, whereby Radschuck gives the present number 8 for the house Breite Straße 159 and names an ice-cream cafe in the house for 1988 [2].
The business in the 1920s
On 4 February 1924 the "Wariner Zeitung" carried a joint discount advertisement of the Warin branch of the Reich Association of Textile Retailers, in which the firm Gustav Hirsch and Moritz Seligson took part [1]. Just under four months later, on 31 May 1924, the paper reported the handover of the business "Seligson - owner Moritz Seligson" to the firm Sachse & Hannemann (cloth and ready-made clothing) from Gnoien [1]. The sources do not state the price or the terms of the handover, and the place and the background of the handover have not been documented so far; the later fate of the firm Sachse & Hannemann in Warin has, moreover, not yet been investigated. Radschuck counts the business among the businesses owned by Jews that were given up in the 1920s for reasons of age or because of death and did not pass back into Jewish hands [2].
The community and the family after 1924
Because of the small number of members Moritz Seligson, as last head, applied on 27 September 1922 for the dissolution of the Jewish community of Warin, which according to his statement and that of the ministry then consisted, besides him, only of Emma Hirsch, Iwan Hirsch and the widow Pauline Salomon. The Ministry for Spiritual Affairs decided on the dissolution on 7 October 1922, and the Oberrat (supreme council of the Jewish communities) agreed on 21 November 1922, whereupon the members joined the community of Schwerin.
Moritz Seligson died on 5 July 1932 [2]. His sister Clara Seligson, unmarried and born in 1862, lived in the house Breite Straße 159 and gave piano lessons in Warin [2][3]. After 1933 only three Jewish women were left living in Warin, among them Clara Seligson. According to Radschuck there were no Jewish businesses left in Warin at the time of the pogrom night, while SA and SS men desecrated the Jewish cemetery [2]. According to Radschuck's text Clara Seligson died soon afterwards in Warin at the age of 77, according to the family tree on 12 April 1939 [2][3]. A persecution measure against Clara Seligson is not documented, and whether she was harassed is unknown.