Silbermann & Brüll, Production of Perfume, Soap and Cardboard, Moravská Ostrava

Collection

Title:: Silbermann & Brüll, Production of Perfume, Soap and Cardboard, Moravská Ostrava

Title (official language):: Silbermann a Brüll, výroba parfumérie, mýdla a kartonáže, Moravská Ostrava

Scope and content:: The documents kept in the fonds cover only certain sections from the activity of the cosmetics firm founded in 1928 in Moravská Ostrava. The contract of sale for the acquisition of a building in Moravská Ostrava and also contract for purchase of a plot of land from the Jewish community in Moravská Ostrava illustrate the first steps of the firm (inv. № 2). An accusation against Silbermann from the tax office for tax evasion and his appeal to the Ministry of Finance in Prague illustrate an attempt to liquidate the firm in the 1930s. There is a larger volume of documents from the wartime period, when the German businessman Hans Mouson from Frankfurt am Main acquired the firm. In particular the business correspondence of the owner and documents concerning production, operational and accounting matters apply to this period. The post-war period is represented mainly by materials associated with the nationalisation of the enterprise. The letters of Hanuš Silbermann, the son of the deceased Jindřich Silbermann, asking for the return of assets seized as a result of racial persecution illustrate the fate of the original Jewish firm and its owner (inv. № 8).

Archival history:: Only a very small volume of documents have survived from the activity of the firm. It may be assumed that the German owners had some of the most important documents sent to head office of their firm in Frankfurt am Main. The rest of the documents illustrating the existence of the firm were filed in the national enterprise Milo Olomouc. In 1978 they were transferred to the State Regional Archives in Opava. In 2004 an inventory was created.

Administrative/biographical history:: In 1928 Jindřich Silbermann founded the firm called J. Silbermann, production of perfume, soap and cardboard in Moravská Ostrava. At the end of the 1920s it gained a licence for the manufacture of cosmetics of the German firms Mouson and Mülhens on our territory. Along with his brother-in-law and confidential clerk of the firm Dr. Otto Brüll, he expanded trading to include all the packaging materials and cardboard for the actual cosmetic products. After the border areas were annexed in 1938, Silbermann transferred all the licensing rights to his brother-in-law. According to the later testimony of his son, in 1940 Silbermann was imprisoned in Auschwitz, where he died in 1944. In 1941 the factory was purchased by the Mouson family, and the firm continued to exist under the name Mouson & Co. Moravská Ostrava. After its nationalisation the firm was incorporated in the national enterprise Milo Olomouc in 1948.

Subject terms:: Correspondence; Financial records; Plunder; Restitution and compensation; Taxation; Trade and commerce

System of arrangement:: The fonds is arranged as follows: I. Files, II. Accounting materials, III. Technical documentation.

Finding aids:: Tarabová I.: Silbermann a Brüll, výroba parfumérie, mýdla a kartonáže, Moravská Ostrava, (1923) 1925-1948 (1950). Inventář, 2004, 19 s., č. p. 1516.

The inventory is available online.