Familienbuch Euregio

English Edition:

Far Away From Würselen

The German-Jewish Family of Jakob and Emma Voss from Würselen near Aachen

The Roots of the Voss Family, a genealogy of Jewish Families in the Rhineland 1700-1950

By Iris Gedig (Ed.) and Stefan Kahlen, Familienbuch Euregio, Erftstadt, 2013

English Edition, Erftstadt, 2015, tranlated into English by Victoria Hill

Self-published in the USA by Voss sisters Eleanor Goff, Mimi Rose, Doreen Giles

Production of English edition: BooksOnDemand.com

ISBN 978-0-692-38139-7

English Edition Cover page List of illustrations Index of Place Names Index of Names German Edition

There is a house in Würselen I have known since my childhood. The building with the heavy door opening onto a courtyard was on my way to school. I passed this house on Wilhelmstraße hundreds of times. There was a butcher shop in the building where my family shopped for decades. People whispered that the Jewish family of Jakob Voss had a butcher shop there before the war. They whispered as if it were probably better to avoid bringing up the "old stories." Even many years after the war, time was still divided into three periods: before 1933, after 1945, and the time nobody talked about. The German-Jewish Family of Jakob and Emma Voss from Würselen near Aachen Stefan Kahlen Our internet site Familienbuch-Euregio is dedicated to all those who preceded us in this world, who like us lived their lives to the best of their knowledge and belief, and without whom our life would not be the way it is today. Of course it is impossible for us to pull people from the past into our present, but through research about our ancestors we keep alive the memory of those to whom we owe our lives. And so we are constantly in search of further traces of the lives of our forebears. The starting point is the history of Würselen and the history of the people of this place. In the context of Familienbuch-Euregio we meet long-established local families who have been resident in Würselen for centuries, and we meet the families of Manus Schwarz and his descendants that have made their homes in other areas of the Rhine-Maas Region, in Europe, and overseas. The Roots of the Voss Family, a genealogy of Jewish Families in the Rhineland 1700-1950 Iris Gedig Contents Foreword by Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament 7 Preface by Iris Gedig 7 Preface by Stefan Kahlen 8 Acknowledgments 11 The German-Jewish Family of Jakob and Emma Voss from Würselen near Aachen 15 The Beginnings of the Voss Family 17 The Voss Family, the Jewish Community of Würselen, and the Traces Left Behind 19 Foundational Years 21 Harbingers of Injustice 26 The Kristallnacht 28 Rudolf Voss - Marriage and Flight 29 In the New World 32 Emma and Jakob: Deported, Sought - Lost 35 Some Things Were Never Expressed... 40 Memories of Rudy Voss, Their Father 44 Looking for Traces 51 Where Is Fritz Voss? 53 Ernst Voss - The Long Road from Würselen to Erie 57 Jakob Voss's Family and Siblings from Embken 60 Albert Voss from Embken to Denmark 64 The Lucas Family from Warden - An Idyllic Village Becomes a Nightmare 69 The Lucas Children 73 The Jewish Community of Würselen - The End and the Years Ahead 78 Afterword 82 May They Be Bound into the Covenant of the Living 84 Notes 88 Sources of the Illustrations 96 The Roots of the Voss Family 99 Genealogy of Jewish Families in the Rhineland 100 Name Establishment of the Jewish Residents of Kelz and Sievernich in 1808 101 Name Establishment Kelz Town Hall 1808 103 Name Establishment Sievernich Town Hall 1808 118 Ancestors of the Voss Family 128 Manus Schwarz from Müddersheim and His Family 130 Descendants of Manus Schwarz 135 List of Places with Their Current Designations 171 List of Countries 181 Index of Place Names 184 Index of Names 189 Bibliography 213 Internet Resources 215

English Edition Cover page List of illustrations Index of Place Names Index of Names German Edition

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