Creating and updating the directory of Jews in the district

These records are certainly also flawed. Not everything that has been written in newspaper or books not even in certificates and official documents is correct. In many cases there was no option to fact check the information. In addition to that people with the same name used to live at the same place at the same time. Therefore, dates and facts could not always be clearly assigned to the right person. Furthermore, communal and district staff were not always as conscientious in the past as they are portrait to be. For example, there were often several spellings of one name; sometimes different birth or marriage dates are found in the files of the same person; tax data were also carried over to the next year without exact inspection.

And there can certainly also be errors due to negligence or mistakes made by the writer of this compilation.

But all these causes are the reason why this register is described as “in progress” in the introductory sentence. Even after it was put online this topic is further researched and changes as well as additions will be made.

If you see any mistakes, corrections or have additional information you would like us to include send a mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This compilation is made for the internet- not as a book. A book is a finished product, on the internet there is always the opportunity to easily change and add things.

In in individual cases there is justified interest to delete and or remove information about certain persons the author is more than willing to do so.

In the heading of each biography the places in Waldeck- Frankenberg with which the people are connected to are named. If those places are in bold print they lived there for some time. If those places are in normal print they were either related (spouse; children; etc.) to Jews or only lived there for a short period of time.

Many people have provided valuable help in gathering data and facts:

Jürgen Evers, Christiane Kupski and Günter Maier regarding Jews from Vöhl, Carol Baird (esp. for the Frankenthal and Mildenberg families), Heinrich Figge (for Jews in Höringhausen), Ernst Friedrich Gallenkamp (for Jews in the villages of the Edertal community), Reiner Gasse (for Jewish families from the upper Edertal), Johannes Grödecke (for Bad Wildungen), Norbert Hansen (Alsfeld, for relatives of the Rothschild family), Dr. Horst Hecker (esp. for Jews from the old district of Frankenberg and for Jewish patients of the psychiatric clinic in Haina (monastery)), Roger Herz- Fischler (for the Katzenstein family from Frankenau and for families from the upper Edertal), Gerhard Keute and Walter Zarges (for Jews in Altenlotheim and Frankenau), Monica Kingreen from the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt, Ernst Klein (for Jews in Volkmarsen), Hans-Peter Klein from Melsungen for various families  in northern Hesse, Dr. Marion Lilienthal (for Jews from Korbach), Equardo Oppenheimer (for the Oppenheimer families), Matthew Sichel (for the Kratzenstein families), Karl- Hermann Völker (for the Andorn family from Gemünden).

Excellent support was provided by the International Tracing Service (Internationaler Suchdienst) in Bad Arolsen which gave us available copies of all documents concerning Holocaust victims from communities of the Waldeck- Frankenberg district. Archive manager Udo Jost and Mrs. Margret Schmidt deserve special mention.

We are very grateful to all of them.

All sources can be found under this link:  Quellen der Informationen