In his memoirs, Valentin Plettner states that the brothers Samuel and Sally Sondheim came to Halberstadt as “ragged” participants of World War I. In fact, they are not yet listed in the 1918 Halberstadt address book. The address book entries from 1920 to 1942 reflect their social and professional advancement.The business in Halberstadt flourished and expanded. The warehouse always remained on Grudenberg No. 7, but a salesroom on Hohe Weg was added and the private residences were later located in the newly built residential areas bordering the city center to the south. In 1930, Samuel Sondheim married Rita Silberberg, the daughter of Hermann Silberberg, a banker and member of the board of the Jewish community in Halberstadt. In 1932, their son Helmut was born. Rita Sondheim and her son Helmut were deported to Warsaw on April 12, 1942, and are thought to have been murdered in Auschwitz.In May 1945 Samuel Sondheim placed an obituary for his in-laws in Aufbau, the German-language emigre newspaper in New York. Rita and Helmut are listed as mourners, “whereabouts unknown”.