Concluding remarks SigmundFamilyMemorial
With the completion of SigmundFamilyMemorial, an investigation that has lasted many years comes to an end. What began as a search for facts, documents, and memories grew into a digital book about a family that had been virtually erased by history. Olly, a childhood friend of Lotte Sigmund, told me: I had the idea to myself: I am the only one in the world who still thinks of them.

The world of the Sigmund family became increasingly smaller from the occupation years onwards. Their freedom of movement was restricted, their possessions inventoried, registered, and ultimately confiscated. What they had built up was taken from them. Ultimately, they were deported and murdered in Auschwitz.

By recovering records, photos, stories, and personal details, they have regained their name, face, and human dignity.

Toy Designers
At his farewell as director in 1977, Mr. Mertens spoke about the Sigmund couple: Mr. and Mrs. Sigmund were associated with SIO as toy designers until the war.

The models produced were largely designed by Ernst and Käthe Sigmund. From the founding in 1938, the toy collection expanded enormously within a short period of time.

Sigmund dedicated himself to the factory until the very end. His secretary, Elly Weijl, wrote: At Sio, everything runs smoothly, and your business will be handled in your spirit to the best of my ability.

After the war, it became clear at Sio that the Sigmund family would not return, and new ideas and new designs for the toy factory came to a halt.

The concluding remarks of the SigmundFamilyMemorial could have ended here, were it not that in 1950 Rokus van Blokland, my father, happened to be staying in the eastern part of the country for a while and placed an advertisement in a local newspaper offering his services as an Industrial Designer. Contact with Sio was established, and Rokus began designing toys for Sio together with Corry.

Thus, the concluding remarks of this site are also the preface to the other site, rvbcvbm.com, where the work of my parents is presented.

Over the past nearly twenty years, I have dedicated myself to documenting the work and life of my parents, Rokus and Corry van Blokland Mobach. The majority of their extensive oeuvre—designs, their own work—has now found a place on the website rvbcvbm.com. This documentation was created in close collaboration with my parents. In countless conversations, their work gained increasing meaning, coherence, and context; not only for me, but often for themselves as well.

The Sigmund family was present in those conversations from the very beginning. Their name and history formed an impressive part of my parents' story. The fact that Ernst and Käthe Sigmund never returned, having been murdered, was the main reason why Sio went in search of new ideas and new designs.
After the war, Rokus and Corry came to fill a place that had remained empty since the loss of the Sigmund family.

Therefore, for both my parents and me, it felt like a logical step to research and document the history of the Sigmund family, alongside capturing my parents' work. After all, both stories are inextricably linked.

Ron van Blokland, 2026

A Word of Thanks
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Karin Eigenthaler first. Before the laying of the Stumbling Stone in Scheinfeld, she researched the Sigmund and Kaufmann families and on that occasion read the history of both families.

Many thanks also to the Jewish Monument, Stichting Struikelstenen Gooise Meren, Kamp Westerbork, Arie Kamphorst, Coert, John and Jan de Nooij, Marc de Haas.

Special thanks to Bart van Blokland who devised and programmed the structure of the site.

Ron van Blokland

Contact: siodesigners@gmail.com