Sally Kimel

Sally (Salo, Sol, Sal) Kimel was the son of Felix Kimel and Eva Goldberg (1893),^[1] After his parents divorced, Sally moved with his mother to Amsterdam in 1930, where they went to live with his aunt Lea and uncle Szaja (Josef) Reiner and their two sons Ab (1929) and Marco (1932).^[2]

Sally was enrolled by Preparatory School No. 51 on 25 September 1933.^[3] Like his cousin Abraham (Appie, Ab) Reiner, he was a classmate of Anne Frank.^[4] In the 1934 kindergarten photo of Anne Frank's class, Sally is the blond boy second from the left in the middle. Anne listed him as number 3.^[5] In the 1935 kindergarten class photo, Sally is the boy in the back, to the left of Miss Baldal. Anne gave him number 7.^[6] After kindergarten, Ab he was in Anne's class at the Sixth Montessori School from the first to fifth year,^[7] as was his cousin Ab. Anne writes about Sally in her diary:

‘When I was still very little, even in kindergarten, my heart went out to Sally Kimmel [sic]. (...) One of Sally’s cousins was Appy, and those two were usually together and usually dressed alike. Appy was a handsome, slim, dark-haired boy and Sally was a little, fat, blonde fun-maker, with ever so much humor. But I didn’t care about handsome looks, I loved Sally very much for years. For a time we were together a lot, but otherwise my love remained unanswered.’^[8]

They were not in Anne's class during their sixth and final school year. After completing the Sixth Montessori School, Sally and Ab, together with other school graduates, presented their teacher Lena Südfeldt with a poetry album as a gift.^[9] Just before the summer holidays of 1941, the German occupiers issued a decree that Jewish children had to attend Jewish schools. Sally and Ab went to the Jewish HBS with a Five-Year Course at the Former Stadstimmertuin 2. In the first year, they were in class 1B.^[10] On 18 October 1941 he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at the synagogue in Lekstraat.^[11]

He had to suddenly go into hiding when his mother was arrested in the street, an event that also put him in danger.^[12] He ended up with a sister of Johannes Post, who lived near Hoogeveen.^[13] After a year, when she could no longer keep him, he went to an address close by where his relatives had been in hiding for some time. On 7 February 1945 they were accidently discovered by members of the Landwacht passing by. They were subsequently arrested. The farmer with whom they were hiding was shot dead.^[14] His uncle was interrogated, badly beaten and finally shot dead. ^[15] Sally, his aunt and his two cousins Ab and Marcus ended up in Westerbork and stayed there until they were liberated by the Canadians.^[16] After the war, Sally was taken in by his aunt Lea Goldberg.^[1]

In the early fifities Sally studied mathematics and physics, paid for by a weatlhy aunt.^[17] This was probably Lea Goldberg.^[1]

In June 1947 Otto Frank sent him a copy of The Secret Annex, with a reference to the date on which he was mentioned. ^[18] He emigrated around 1954 to Israel, where he found work as a chemist.^[4] He was a professor at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and performed research into biomedical applications of lasers.^[19]

Salo Kimel passed away in 2021, 92 years old.^[19]

Source personal data.^[1] Addresses: Berlin; Lutmastraat 15 huis, Amsterdam (1930);^[1] Zuider Amstellaan 37 II (March 1933); Daniel Willinkplein 29A hs (18 May 1940); 13 III (June 1940),^[20] Mozartkade 8hs (1948); Rehovot, Israël (1956).^[1]