Welcome to the former synagogue Voehl!

Gaza is an ancient town, one of the 5 Philistine towns mentioned in the bible. The Philistines were a Greek tribe that reached by the sea from Crete in the 12^th century B.C. and lived in a neighborhood of the Jewish kingdoms in Judea & Samaria until the 6^th century B.C.

It was, then, inhabited by Jews, Greeks, and Arabs over the years. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were in Gaza about 15000 people, mostly Arabs and a small Jewish community.

According to the November 1947 partition resolution of the U.N. of the British Mandate area west of the Jordan River, the Gaza Strip was part of the Palestinian state. At that time there were 70,000 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly farmers. The Palestinian leadership denied the U.N. resolution and opened war against the Jewish community, together with all Arab states. They lost the war, the Israeli Independence War, and according to the Armistice agreement, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian rule. During the 1948 war, 170,000 refugees fled to the Gaza Strip, thus creating the problem of today. The U.N. established the UNRWA administration to help the refugees with food, housing, and education. But unlike the rest of the world where such aid was given only for the first refugee generation, in this case, it was forever because the Arab States would not take responsibility to help their brothers. This caused continuous economic dependence, prevented any future development, and created a poor society with no future, one of the poorest in the world.

Gaza Strip was occupied by the Israeli army during the 6 days war in 1967 and was ruled by a military administration until 1993, when the civil government was delivered to the Palestinian Authority, according to the Oslo Treaty.

In 1967 the population was 356,000.

In 2005, the Israeli army left the Gaza Strip leaving the total rule to the Palestinian Authority. Until 1993, 90% of the Gaza Strip economy was part of the Israeli economy but since then it deteriorated to 10 – 15% by the pressure of the P.A. The Gaza Strip is still dependent on Israel for most of its electricity, fuel, water, and import–export.

In 2007, the Hamas movement took hold of the Gaza Strip by a military coup, killing and arresting hundreds of P.A. administrators and political supporters. They established a cruel Islamic tyranny, killing any opposer and isolating the Strip.

Hamas was founded in 1987 by Ahmad Yasin, an Islamic fanatic, as a branch of the Islamic Brotherhood movement in Egypt. This movement is active in many Muslim countries and communities and believes in establishing a religious Muslim regime in the world, subject to the Koran rule of the Sharia. Democracy and liberalism, or individual rights are not part of these beliefs and should be oppressed and eliminated. Hamas, as the Palestinian branch, added to the general ideas the specific wishes for them, namely – a Palestinian state "from the sea to the river", eliminating Israel and sending the Jews back to where they had come from. Following this policy they started terror attacks in 1987 such as bus explosions, and suicide bombings in Israeli public centers. Controlling Gaza, they built up military power by organizing an army, of 20,000 strong, developing rockets, and building a huge infrastructure of underground tunnels and war rooms under Gaza. It became the largest underground fortification in history, with about 500 kilometers of tunnels. Their rocket's arsenal reached 15,000 units. All this was financed by billions of dollars contributed by countries like Qatar, Emirates, and Turkey which were donated for the farewell of the civilians but were confiscated by Hamas and left the population as one of the poorest in the world. The population in 2023 is about 2,000,000 half of them under18.

Hamas started terror actions immediately after 2007 and Israel retaliated with attacks in the Strip causing a lot of damage and succeeding in getting quiet intervals but not a change or a real retaliation against Hamas. During these years Israel closed the border with under and over-ground fences to prevent Hamas from attacking the settlements near the border.

Until Oct. 7^th, 2023.

The savage attack with the purpose of killing and taking captive Israeli civilians with the result of 1,300 killed and about 300 taken prisoners, including 35 children, some of them younger than 1 year, was too much. It was the greatest pogrom since WW2.

This time there was a consensus, following our vow – never again, that the Hamas regime and leadership should be physically eliminated, all their arsenal destroyed and the Gaza Strip completely demilitarized for good. For Israel, it is a matter of future existence, and therefore, not negotiable, exactly as it was in the war of independence in 1948.

With the support of the liberal governments on the one hand and the terrible anti-Semitic propaganda and demonstrations on the other hand, it is even more clear that Israel has to win this war without question, how much it takes.

The Israeli army, failed to be prepared and to defend the population, exactly 50 years after the Yom Kippur War (Oct. 6^th, 1973), and for similar reasons, recovered very quickly.

Within a few days, most of the intruders were killed or captivated, the reserve army was drafted for training and the air force attacked targets in the Strip. After 3 weeks the army invaded the Strip in a ground battle which had never been fought before.

Until now, it has been proven that Hamas was using hospitals and schools. U.N. facilities and mosques as military bases, using, by force, their population as human shields. They do not mind the total destruction and the human life loss and stick to their fanatic religious beliefs.

The victory over Hamas is essential when we look north to Lebanon where Hezbollah, a proxy of Iran, has the same ideas as Hamas but with a larger army and many more rockets and guided missiles, and place a much higher danger to Israel. It is clear to them that war will destroy the state of Lebanon and that the majority of the Lebanese people are against it, but they are committed to Iran. Therefore, since Iran is a local power, it becomes an international issue to be handled by the USA and other local powers like Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

What can happen after the war? There are several possibilities:

1. Israeli occupation – nobody wants it, except the Israeli extreme
2. A. rule – too weak, unstable, and real concern that Hamas will take over like in 2007.
3. Egyptian rule like until 1967 - they rejected the
4. International regime, of Arab countries, which will transfer the authority to the P.A. after a long process of
5. Similar to 4 but including considerable immigration to host

The international community should commit itself to the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip, under each of the alternatives mentioned above, giving the poor population, at last, hope and future, which was denied by Hamas for so many years.

A remark to the European countries – there are already similar fanatic movements in Europe with the purpose of establishing an Islamic regime according to the Sharia. The Arab minorities are growing fast, they do not absorb the democratic and liberal values of their hosts, and they take advantage of the generous welfare, without contributing back. They prefer countries like Sweden, Germany, Belgium, and Holland. Pay attention that in countries like Poland, Romania, and Hungary there are no Arab refugees. Democracies are committing suicide by not defending themselves.

Michael Dimor  20.11.2023

In the 18th century, Jews generally did not yet have surnames, but supplemented their own first name with that of their father. In the first decade of the 19th century - at the time of the occupation of large parts of Germany by France - family names also became obligatory for Jews. Many families chose the name of the place of origin. This explains why the descendants of that Simcha Simon chose Vöhl as their surname.

The Joseph Rosenthal mentioned at the beginning can be found at the botom of the Simcha Simon family tree. He died in 2008. It is a pity that we did not contact him.
Several hundred people comprise the descendants of Simcha Simon. We have initially put four family trees on the net. Gradually we will add short biographies of the persons to them.
We have granted the Jews in the succession of Simcha Simon their own folder on this website.

When former Vöhl Jews or their descendants visited Vöhl in September 2000, we promised them that we in the Vöhl synagogue would always remember those people who were murdered in German names. With this directory, too, we are fulfilling our promise.This directory of Vöhl Holocaust victims also includes people who only lived in Vöhl for a very short time, e.g. as employees of merchants. The spouses or children of Vöhl Jews who left Vöhl after their marriage were also accepted. 

Erna Baruch, née Katzenstein

was born on March 3, 1882 as the daughter of Cäcilie and Samuel Katzenstein in a house in the lower Mittelgasse in Vöhl. In 1901 she married Albert Baruch and moved with him to Essen, where they were born with their two sons Bernhard and Heinz. She died at the age of 60 on 23 August 1942 in Auschwitz, where her son Bernhard Baruch also died a month later, on 23 September.

Max Cossen

born on 18 November 1899 in Weener, was employed as a merchant by Ferdinand Kaiser in Vöhl from 1925 to 1927. After their marriage to Paula Meyer from Eimelrod, they lived there, later in Cologne. During the 1930s they emigrated to the Netherlands and lived in Amsterdam. After the occupation of the Netherlands by Germany, they were interned in the Westerbork camp. On 7 September 1943, Max Cossen was deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz with his wife and two children. After arriving on 9 September, Paula Cossen and her daughters Marianne and Lieselotte were killed in the gas chambers. Max Cossen was forced to work for a few more months before he was killed on 31 March 1944.

Lina Goldblum, née Blum

was born on 18.7.1884 as a child of the Vöhler family Abraham and Frida Blum. In 1906 she married the merchant Adolf Goldblum from Witten and moved to him. The two ran a grocery store there. They were born with their son Heinz. In 1921, Lina Goldblum contributed to the foundation of the Memorial to the Fallen of world war. Lina Goldblum died in Wattenscheid in 1937 at the age of 53.

Julius Flörsheim

born on October 25, 1883 in Wolfhagen, was a teacher at the Jewish school in Vöhl from 1907 to 1914. In 1913 he was one of the founders of a shooting club in Vöhl. In 1914 he became a middle school teacher in Frankfurt. Immediately after the beginning of the war he was moved in and he was taken prisoner of war in the Vosges, from which he was released only four years later. Until 1935 he taught at the Brüder-Grimm-Schule in Frankfurt, then until October 1941 in educational institutions for Jewish children. In connection with the pogrom night, he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp for six weeks at the end of 1938. In October 1941, he was deported to Lodz along with 1,000 other Frankfurt Jews, including his wife and one of his two sons. There he died of exhaustion in early 1942, according to witnesses.

His wife Jenny Flörsheim was gassed a little later in the nearby extermination camp Chelmno.

Son Kurt Flörsheim was only taken to Auschwitz when the ghetto was evacuated from Lodz in mid-1944, worked in the so-called Sonderkommando and was then probably killed.

Beate Frankenthal

Johanna and Bernhard Frankenthal's daughter Beate was born on 7 June 1892. She was considered a very reserved woman in the village and remained single. Beate Frankenthal was deported to Kassel at the end of May 1942 and from there on Tuesday, June 1, to the east. Probably on June 3, the train arrived in Lublin. The working men had to get off there and were driven to Majdanek, while the train continued with the women, children and old men, probably also with Beate Frankenthal, to Sobibor. They were probably gassed there within 2 hours of their arrival. She had turned fifty. However, her name is listed in the memorial book of the Majdanek camp. She may have died there.

Bertha Frankenthal

was born on September 6, 1887 in Vöhl, the daughter of the Vöhler merchant Hermann Hirsch Frankenthal and his wife Emma. In several eyewitness accounts, she is described as a caring and helpful woman. After her father's early death, she continued to run his business on a small scale. She lived in a small house on Arolser Straße. Shortly after the death of her mother in the spring of 1940, she moved to Frankfurt. Berta Frankenthal was deported from Frankfurt to Kaunas in November 1941 and shot there together with nearly 3,000 Jews from Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt. She was 54.

Johanna Frankenthal, née Bachrach

Johanna Frankenthal was born on 7 July 1868 in Langenschwarz near Hünfeld as the daughter of Jakob and Marianne Bachrach and married Bernhard Frankenthal in 1891. The couple lived with their daughters Beata and Ida on the Schulberg. In the early morning of September 6, 1942, she was picked up from her house by the mayor and another leading Member of the Nazi Party and taken to Itter station. From there she was deported via Kassel on 7 September to Theresienstadt, where she died on 18 November 1942. She was 74.

Emma Hirsch, née Katz

was born on 2.1.1882 in Korbach. She married Maximilian Hirsch and moved to Sachsenhausen. The children Bernhard, Hildegard and Else were born to them. In 1934 her husband died and she moved back to Korbach. At the end of September 1939 she lived with her sister Hermine Rothschild in Vöhl for a few weeks, probably to help her after the death of her husband Alfred Rothschild, and then moved back to Korbach. On June 1, 1942, she was deported from Kassel via Lublin to Sobibor, where she probably died on June 3 in a gas chamber. 

Johanna Jacobs, née Blum

comes from the old Vöhler Blum family, who have been living at least since 1705. She was born in 1890 as the daughter of the merchants Abraham and Frida Blum. Her last known place of residence is the Latvian capital Riga, where she was probably killed in the early 1940s.

Gustav Lorsch

was born on August 24th, 1894 in Alsfeld. From 1911 to 1912 he worked as a clerk in Vöhl in Abraham Blum's shop. Later he lived in Giessen. During the war he disappeared somewhere in Poland. His wife Selma, née Stiefel (born 1898) and his sons Arno (born 1927) and Norbert (born 1928) were also deported to Poland in 1942; the latter two are known to have been murdered in Treblinka. 

Ferdinand Kaiser

was born on January 10, 1866. His parents Levi and Selka Kaiser moved from Basdorf to Vöhl in the middle of the 19th century. Ferdinand Kaiser, father of four children, owned the "Kaiser Café" in Korbach from 1908 to 1912 together with a partner. However, he lived in Vöhl, where he also ran a shop for manufactured goods, regional products and artificial fertilizers. At the beginning of the century he was a member of the municipal council and the road commission and exercised the function of an honorary lay judge at the court. Ferdinand Kaiser was one of the founders of the war memorial for those who fell in World War I. In 1935 he sold his business in Vöhl and in 1936 moved to live with relatives in Frankfurt. On August 19, 1942, he and his wife Ida were deported from Frankfurt to Theresienstadt, where he died on December 20, 1943 at the age of almost 78.

Ida Kaiser, née Löwenstern

was born in 1869 as the daughter of Bernhard and Bertha Löwenstern in Korbach. At the beginning of February she married Ferdinand Kaiser, who had been widowed two years earlier, moved to live with him in Vöhl and gave birth to the children Anna Bertha and Erich. She also raised the stepchildren Brunhilde and Leopold. Ida Kaiser left Vöhl with her husband in 1936; they moved to live with relatives in Frankfurt. On August 19, 1942, she and her husband were deported from Frankfurt to Theresienstadt. There she died on March 17, 1943 at the age of 74. 

Dina Kratzenstein, née Strauss

was born on April 14, 1867 as the daughter of a Strauss family in Eimelrod. After the wedding with the Marienhagen innkeeper, businessman and farmer Felix (Selig) Kratzenstein, she lived with him in the building that is now known as the “old country school home”. They had four children: Hermann, Hedwig, Herda and Julius. In January 1936 she emigrated to Holland with the family of her daughter Hedwig. On April 27, 1943 she was deported from the Dutch transit camp Westerbork to Auschwitz, where she was probably gassed as soon as she arrived. She was 76 years old. 

Hermann Kratzenstein

was born on February 5, 1891 in Marienhagen. Right at the beginning of World War I, he was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery in the face of the enemy. In 1918 he married Emilie, née Wertheim, and moved to live with her in Niedermarsberg. The couple had three children: Erich, Ilse and Hilde. Even before the war began, they moved to the Netherlands and lived in Enschede. On April 21, 1943, Hermann and Emilie Kratzenstein were deported to Theresienstadt. The children Ilse and Erich followed on January 20, 1944. On September 28, 1944, the family was torn apart again: Hermann Kratzenstein and son Erich had to go to Auschwitz. A week later, on October 4th, Emilie Kratzenstein and daughter Ilse followed to the extermination camp. Emilie Kratzenstein (50 years old) and probably daughter Ilse (23) were killed in the gas chambers immediately upon arrival.On October 22, 1944, Hermann Kratzenstein was transferred to the Leitmeritz command of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, where he died on January 27, 1945 at the age of 53. Two months after the father, the 17-year-old son Erich Kratzenstein died on March 21, 1945 in the Flossenbürg concentration camp.The daughter Hilde, who was married in the Netherlands, had also been deported to Auschwitz and was taken to the block for medical experiments in the main camp. She survived after an odyssey through several other camps. 

Antonie Kugelmann

called Toni, was born on February 5, 1886 as the daughter of Isaak and Sara Kugelmann. She grew up with her four siblings in a house on Kirchweg. In Frankfurt she learned the trade of a tailor and worked as a housekeeper. In 1921 she was one of the founders of the Memorial for the Fallen in World War I at Maßloh, which she felt obliged to do mainly because her brother Max had died in this war. In the mid-thirties she lived in Cologne. There has been no evidence of her since her deportation to Lodz. She may have been around 55 years old. 

Ruth Katzenstein, née Mildenberg, then Kugelmann

was born on December 8, 1911 as a child of Moritz and Helene Mildenberg in Vöhl. After the parents' divorce, the mother had taken her maiden name again and probably passed it on to her two daughters. Ruth married Helmut Katzenstein and lived with him and their son Robert in Amsterdam during the war. On August 31, 1943, she was deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz with her husband and son and more than 1,000 Jews. She died on September 3, 1943 in Auschwitz at the age of 32. Son Robert Katzenstein, just 3 years old, died with her. Husband Helmut Katzenstein was referred to the other side during the selection process, worked for six months and died at the age of 33 on March 31, 1944. 

Helene Kugelmann

was born on October 8, 1888 in Korbach. In 1911 she married the butcher Moritz Katzenstein from Vöhl and moved in with him. They had two daughters, Ruth and Else. In 1924 they got divorced. Helene Mildenberg moved with her daughters to Korbach and took her maiden name again. In the 1930s she emigrated to the Netherlands with her daughter Ruth Katzenstein and her family and lived with them in Amsterdam. In 1938 she visited her daughter Else in Palestine, perhaps to see her grandson Dimor. Unfortunately, she didn't stay there, but traveled back to the Netherlands. On September 21, 1943, she and 978 other Jews were deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz. Immediately after the train arrived, she died in the gas chambers on September 23, 1943. It was just before her 55th birthday. 

Helene Külsheimer

was on 15.2. Born in Basdorf in 1874 as the daughter of the dealer Bendix and his wife Rosa Külsheimer, where she lived with her five siblings. There is evidence that the Külsheimer family lived there before 1800. Helene Külsheimer then lived in Bad Wildungen and from the mid-30s in Kassel. On September 7, 1942, she was deported to Theresienstadt, where she slept in an attic for five months and was given bread and potatoes to eat from time to time. She died there in January 1943 of dysentery and typhus. A rabbi gave the funeral speech for 50 dead at the same time. She was buried in a beautiful linen cloth, as a friend wrote to the relatives in Palestine 

Leopold Laser

was born on February 29, 1884 as the son of the Jewish teacher Joseph Laser and his first wife Karoline in Vöhl, where he grew up with his six siblings. The Lasers lived in the large house on Arolser Strasse that Ascher Rothschild had built and which also housed the Jewish school. Leopold Laser was an apprentice at Eisenach, then also worked in Bochum and Hüsten and married Else Goldberg. He last lived with her in Hagen. On March 2, he was deported to Auschwitz together with his wife Else-Eva, née Goldberg, and their son Heinz-Egon. Since they are not mentioned in the files there, it can be assumed that all three of them were gassed and cremated as soon as they arrived. Leopold and Else-Eva Laser were 59, Heinz-Egon was 18 years old. 

Markus Lazarus

was born on June 18, 1867 in Oberwerba as the son of Hirsch and Schönchen Lazarus. Around 1890 he married Minna Rosenbaum, moved with her to Vöhl and lived in a house in the neighborhood of what would later become the Fleck house. Two children were born to them, the second of whom died after a few days. Around 1900 he married Minna Müller from Herleshausen. In 1901 their son Sally was born. From 1905 they lived in Kassel. On September 7, 1942, Markus and Minna Lazarus were deported from there to Theresienstadt. Markus Lazarus died there on May 4, 1943, his wife Minna Lazarus, née Müller, six weeks later on June 19, 1943. Son Sally Lazarus died on February 25, 1945 in the Mauthausen concentration camp. 

Minna Lazarus

was on 8.2. Born in Oberwerba in 1879 as the daughter of Hirsch and Schönchen Lazarus and moved with them to Vöhl, where she grew up. From 1915 she lived in Kassel; from there she was deported to the Riga ghetto on December 9, 1941. There her trail was lost. 

Ludwig Meyer

Born on October 17, 1912 in Bremke, son of the Jewish teacher Louis Meyer and his wife Paula, lived with his family between 1914 and 1926 in Vöhl, then in Korbach. According to the brother, he was a victim of the Holocaust. Nothing is known about the time and place of death.

Minna Meyer, née Kaiser

was born on October 29, 1864 in Vöhl as the daughter of Levi and Selka Kaiser. She was the sister of the Vöhl merchant Ferdinand Kaiser. In 1889 she married Meier Meyer and lived with him in Bremen. On November 8, 1941, she and 1,000 other Jews were deported from Hamburg to Minsk, where she probably did not live long due to her advanced age.

Jenny Mildenberg

was born on May 6, 1887 in Wohnbach, Friedberg district, and was the first wife of Max Mildenberg (the elder). With him she had the son Leo. She separated from her husband and lived with her son mostly in Bad Mergentheim. In July 1942 she was deported to Auschwitz. 

Max Mildenberg

was born on January 6, 1902 to Salomon and Amalie Mildenberg. He spent his youth with his sister Rosalie in the house at 7 Mittelgasse, next to the synagogue. Among other things, he was a member of the sports and choral clubs as a teenager. In December 1930 he married the evangelical midwife Marie Luise Thomas. The following year their daughter Gisela was born.Max Mildenberg ran a general store initially for a short time in Henkelstrasse, then in what is now Mittelgasse, first in house number 15, then in number 5; Most recently he worked for the Rohde company in road construction and lived in his parents' house (Mittelgasse 7).On November 10, 1938, he was arrested by three police and NSDAP representatives from Vöhl and deported to Buchenwald via Kassel. As inmate No. 25388 he lived there in Block 4a until March 1939. One of the employees of the concentration camp, as he later told us at home, was a young Vöhler. He was released on February 7, 1939, on condition that he had to leave Germany within a year and after his family had presented an immigration permit for the Dominican Republic and paid a large sum to the Kassel SS. Max Mildenberg left Vöhl and went to Brussels via Remscheid and Cologne. He wanted to catch up with his wife and child, but this was no longer possible because of the start of the war. After the beginning of the "western campaign" in the spring of 1940, he was first interned in the Le Vigean camp in central France, then transferred to Saint Cyprien (on the Mediterranean Sea, near the Spanish border) 74th labor column deployed in the arsenal of Roanne on the Loire. In August he was interned in this column in Fort Chapoly on the western outskirts of Lyon. From there he was taken to the Drancy transit camp northeast of Paris.On September 2, 1942, he was deported by train from Drancy near Paris to Auschwitz, where he was probably killed in the gas chambers of the so-called White Bunker on September 4, as soon as the train arrived. 

Minna Mildenberg, née Spier

was born in Allendorf an der Lumda in 1893. She was the first wife of the butcher Albert Mildenberg from Vöhl, had a daughter Margot with him and they lived in Frankfurt. When he emigrated, she did not want to accompany him. As a domestic worker, she lived in Mainz with her daughter Margot Mildenberg, who was also a domestic worker. They were initially concentrated in a regional assembly camp in Mainz, then in the central assembly camp of the People's State of Hesse in Darmstadt, and on March 25, 1942, along with 1,000 other people, were deported to the Piaski ghetto in the Lublin region. Unless they perished there in the following weeks from illness, hunger etc. or were shot during "actions" in the local cemetery, you could have been the victim of the deportation of a large part of the ghetto inhabitants to the Sobibor extermination camp at the end of June 1942, where the most of them were gassed shortly after their arrival. There is not a single survivor of this deportation.

Sophie Nussbaum, née Frankenthal

was born on June 17, 1889 in Vöhl. In 1912 she married the merchant Emanuel Mendel Nussbaum and had with him the son Joseph and the daughter Siddi. In 1921 she made a contribution to the erection of the war memorial for those who fell in World War I on the Maßloh. The Nussbaums lived in the Hünfeld district and later moved to Frankfurt. Together with her husband, she was deported to Theresienstadt on September 16, 1942, and from there to Auschwitz on January 23, 1943, where she was probably killed. Her husband Emanuel Nussbaum died on December 23, 1942 in Theresienstadt. She was 53 and he was 61 years old.

Harry Karl Plaut

,Husband of Klara Külsheimer from Basdorf, lived with his wife in Duisburg before he was deported to Izbica in April 1942. Most likely he died that same year either in Izbiza or in one of the nearby extermination camps Belzec, Majdanek or Sobibor.

Alfred Rothschild

was born on October 4, 1871 in Vöhl as the son of Moritz and Karoline Rothschild, whose Vöhl family tree goes back at least to 1705. In 1904 he married Hermine Katz in Korbach. A year later son Richard was born, who emigrated to Israel in 1935 after a short apprenticeship in the Hachschara (preparatory camp) Grüsen. Alfred Rothschild received the Iron Cross in the First World War, which he often attached to his chest in the 1930s when he was out and about in the village.Alfred Rothschild owned the “Prinz Wilhelm” inn with an attached grocery store. In the 1920s and early 30s he was the director of the amateur theater group and an elected member of the Vöhl municipal council. In the local elections in March 1933, he ran for the local council, but was no longer elected.On the night of November 10th to 11th, 1938, he was arrested and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp via Kassel. One week after his return in early September 1939, he died on September 13 at the age of 67 as a result of the effects of the concentration camp treatment in his brother-in-law's house in Korbach.

Hermine Rothschild, née Katz

was born on August 4th, 1877 as the daughter of the Korbach grain trader Salomon Katz and his wife Johanna and lived with her husband Alfred in Vöhl after their wedding. Together they ran the “Prinz Wilhelm” hotel. She is said to have been a very good cook. After the hotel was aryanized and Alfred's death, she rented a house on Henkelstrasse.She disappeared from Vöhl on May 29, 1942. On June 1st she was deported from Kassel via Lublin to Sobibor, where she probably died in a gas chamber on June 3rd. Sister Emma and brother Siegfried belonged to the same transport. 

Selma Rothschild

was born on February 10, 1867 as the daughter of Moritz and Karoline Rothschild and was the older sister of Alfred Rothschild. Until she was deported, she lived on the top floor of the house built by her grandfather Ascher on Arolser Strasse. At the beginning of September 1942 she was taken from her apartment, on September 6th from Itter train station to Kassel and then to Theresienstadt. On September 29, she was taken to the Treblinka extermination camp together with 2,000 Jews and gassed there on October 1 or 2, 1942.

Mathilde Scharff, née Nussbaum

,born on April 22nd in Niederaula, worked from June 1910 as a so-called support in the household with businessman Ferdinand Kaiser.During the war she was deported to an unknown destination. Where and when she died is unknown. 

Bertha Schiff, née Hirsch

Born on August 5, 1875 in the province of Posen, came to Vöhl with her husband at the end of the 19th century and lived here in a house that was demolished many years ago at the intersection of Arolser Str./Schulberg. In 1912 she moved to Korbach with her husband. On July 15, 1942, she was brought to Kassel. On September 7, 1942 she came to Theresienstadt, where she died on May 6, 1944 at the age of 69.

Ernst Schönhof

was born on June 23, 1864 in Vöhl as the son of Jacob and Rosalie Schönhof. He lived in Hamburg with his wife Bertha, née Oestreicher. On August 18, 1942, his wife was deported from Frankfurt to Theresienstadt. Berta Schönhof died there on September 21, 1942. On September 27, Ernst Schönhof was also brought from Darmstadt to Theresienstadt. He died there on November 2nd as a result of the catastrophic living conditions.

Louis Schonthal

was born on April 1, 1895 in Marienhagen as the son of Moses and Regine Schönthal. In 1925 he married Rosa Löwenstein from Affoldern. In 1927 their daughter Ilse was born to them. They lived in Marienhagen, first in house number 50, which burned down in 1928 as a result of a lightning strike, then in house number 35 on Hauptstrasse. Louis Schönthal was a trader by profession. In 1937 he moved to Herford with his family. In December 1941 they were deported to Riga. Louis Schönthal is said to have been killed by a shot in the neck while punishing.

Rosa Schönthal, née Löwenstein

called Alma, was born on December 13th, 1902 in Affoldern. After her marriage she moved to her husband Louis in Marienhagen, in 1937 to Herford. Together with their 14-year-old daughter, the Schönthals were deported to the east in December 1941. Around the turn of the year 1941/42, according to other information in 1944, she is said to have been shot together with her daughter.

Ilse Schonthal

was born on November 15, 1927 as the daughter of Louis and Rosa Schönthal in Marienhagen. In 1937 she moved with them to Herford, and in December 1941 the 14-year-old was deported to the east with her parents. A book about the Herford Jews reports that Ilse Schönthal died when she threw herself into her mother's arms to protect her and was shot with her.

Albert Stern

was born on June 22nd, 1869 as the son of David and Bertha Stern and lived in Vöhl. He and his sister owned houses 1 and 3 in Mittelgasse, where they ran a shop. In the mid-thirties, the siblings sold the Vöhler houses and moved to Frankfurt. On September 15, 1942, Albert Stern and his sister Rosalie were taken to Theresienstadt. Albert died at the age of 73 in October 1942 in Theresienstadt.

Rosalie Stern

Born on September 22, 1866, was Albert Stern's older sister. Both remained unmarried and lived very withdrawn. Her ancestors had lived in Vöhl since at least 1705. In the mid-30s they sold their houses and moved to Frankfurt. Rosalie Stern died at the age of 77 on February 18, 1943 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Rosalie Sternberg, née Mildenberg

was born in 1904 as the daughter of the merchant Salomon and his wife Amalie Mildenberg in Vöhl. In May 1931 she married the merchant Martin Sternberg from Katzenfurt near Wetzlar in the Vöhl synagogue. In 1932 their son Günter Siegfried was born to them. During the Third Reich they stayed in Vöhl and lived in Mittelgasse. In 1938 Rosalie probably wanted to emigrate with her family. Possibly she stayed because her brother Max was deported to Buchenwald. Since Rosalie had contacted Max in the Gurs camp in southern France by letter, she was sentenced to a few weeks in prison in 1941. In the spring of 1942 the family was brought to the assembly camp in Wrexen and from there deported on June 1st to Sobibor, where they were probably killed together with their son shortly after their arrival on June 3rd.

Martin Sternberg

was born on July 18th, 1903 in Katzenfurt near Wetzlar. In May 1931 he moved to Vöhl, where he married Rosalie Mildenberg. In 1932 they had a son. They stayed in Vöhl during the Third Reich. Sternberg was a businessman, but most recently had to work in civil engineering. He was also sentenced to prison in 1941 because of written contacts with his brother-in-law Max in the Gurs concentration camp. In 1942 the family was deported to Wrexen and from there to Lublin on June 1st. There he was separated from his wife and child and taken to Majdanek. After three months of forced labor in the local camp, he died on September 5, 1942.

Günther Siegfried Sternberg
born on August 20, 1932 in Sachsenhausen, lived as the son of Martin and Rosalie Sternberg in Vöhl. Since Jews were no longer allowed to attend normal school, he had to attend a Jewish school in Frankfurt from 1939 and live in a Jewish orphanage there. In autumn 1941 the children were sent home for the intended deportation. In the spring of 1942 the family was taken to the assembly camp in Wrexen - initially Günter, a few days later also the parents - and from there on June 1st to Sobibor, where he and his mother were probably killed shortly after their arrival.

Bertha Strauss, née Frankenthal

was born on October 19, 1858 as the daughter of Selig and Jettchen Frankenthal in Vöhl, where she grew up with her siblings Hermann, Lina, Bernhard and Julius. In 1889 she married the businessman Jacob Strauss and had several children with him. She emigrated from Germany to Amsterdam, but was deported to the Westerbork camp on March 20, 1943 and from there to Auschwitz on September 7 of the same year, where she was killed on September 10, the same day as her son Hugo Strauss and his wife Ella Strauss, née Reinberg.

Hedwig Winter, née Kratzenstein

was born on February 28, 1895 in Marienhagen as the daughter of the innkeeper and farmer Felix Kratzenstein and his wife Dina. She grew up with three siblings in the so-called “old country school home”. In 1919 she married the cigar maker Max Winter, with whom she had two daughters, Berni and Gertrud. In January 1936 the whole family, including grandmother Dina Kratzenstein, emigrated to Holland. On October 19th In 1942 she was killed in Auschwitz.

Max Winter

was born on September 23, 1889 as the son of the cigar maker Abraham Winter and his wife Bertha in Tortrow, according to another source in Jastrow. In 1919 he married Hedwig Kratzenstein and moved to Marienhagen, where he continued to run his father-in-law's inn. In 1936 the family, which also included their daughters Berni and Gertrud and their mother-in-law Dina, emigrated to Holland. Max Winter was murdered on March 31, 1944; the place is not known.

Berni von Geldern, née Winter

was born on October 16, 1920 as the daughter of Max and Hedwig Winter and lived in Marienhagen in what would later become the "old" school home. In 1936 the family emigrated to Holland. On October 19, 1942, she and her sister were deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered on October 19, 1942.

Gertrud Winter

was born on 9.6.1924 as the daughter of Max and Hedwig Winter and lived in Marienhagen in what would later become the "old" country school home. In 1936 the family emigrated to Holland. On October 19, 1942, she and her sister were deported to Auschwitz and probably killed in a gas chamber on the same day.