What they couldn't take away from me was my good humour
Youth in Berlin
Siggi Gross grew up in Berlin's Scheunenviertel neighbourhood, where his orthodox preschool was located. He attended grammar school in Berlin Mitte and, like his brothers, worked as an extra at the State Opera. The four brothers never missed a theatre premiere and got up to a lot of shenanigans. Once they snuck into the costume ball at the zoo and drank from the champagne glasses of the guests who were on the dance floor.
Passionate sportsman
Siggi Gross was passionate about sport throughout his life. He joined the Jewish sports club "Bar Kochba " at the age of six. As a teenager, he took part in international competitions organised by Jewish clubs as a runner and hockey player. Even before his emigration, he travelled to Palestine to take part in the first Maccabia 1932, a kind of Jewish Olympics.
When Siggi Gross travelled to Palestine as an emigrant in 1933, he immediately became a member of the "Maccabi Tel Aviv" club. He was a co-founder and board member of numerous organisations in the Maccabi movement. Finally, at the 16th Maccabiah 2001, he - as a representative of the first generation - lit a torch to commemorate the first Jewish Olympics.
Studying law without a degree
Siggi Gross had been studying law at Berlin University since 1931. The university still allowed religious Jews like him, who were not allowed to write on Shabbat, to take the intermediate examination on another date. He was already a member of the Zionist organisation "Kadimah " at school and as such a "KJVer", i.e. a member of the Kartell Jüdischer Verbindungen. During lunch breaks, the members of this and other fraternities met at the so-called "Standing Convention".
During his studies, Siggi Gross also worked as a journalist for the Berliner Tageblatt, writing, for example, small reports on sporting events and riots at the university.
He had just started his revision course in preparation for the first state examination when he decided to abandon his studies and emigrate with his family.
Transport company in Israel
Siggi Gross' father had travelled ahead to Palestine and caught up with the rest of the family in 1933. Siggi Gross' legal knowledge was of no use to him there, as the British legal system prevailed in the British Mandate. However, he and three friends from Berlin found a way out of this awkward situation: they hired a handcart to transport luggage in Tel Aviv. The business quickly expanded, they bought a lorry, founded a haulage company and later also a travel company. Among other things, the company was responsible for transporting instruments and organising concert tours for the newly created Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.
In Israel, Siggi Gross also met his wife, an Israeli, with whom he had several children. In 1969, he founded the "Association of Former Berliners" and organised visits and meetings for the association's members in Berlin. This led to the Berlin Senate's visit programme, which organised and financed trips to Berlin for former Jewish citizens until the end of 2010. For this initiative, Siggi Gross was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1980.
Siggi Gross died in Israel.
The Berlin Senate's emigrant programme in its original form with group trips expired at the end of 2010. Since then, the Senate Chancellery has continued to organise individual trips, covering the travel and accommodation costs for two people at a time.