Moses Gottschalk

(1869 Ahaus - 1943 Theresienstadt)

In the library of the HfJS we have so far identified three books with the handwritten name of a person called Moses Gottschalk. These are a prayer book from the year 1861 and two Haggadot from the year 1868. It would probably not have been possible to assign the exact name to a person if Moses Gottschalk had not added his address in one book: "Bramscherstr 39". Gottschalk was a cattle dealer and lived in Osnabrück together with his wife Frieda (née Goldbach, 1874-1943) and their three sons Emil, Siegfried and Max. The exact address at which the family and the business were registered was Bramscher Straße 37/39. Today, four Stolpersteine commemorate the former residents of the still existing house. in 1938, the business was Aryanized and the family lost their assets, their house and several larger properties in the surrounding area, which they had used as pastures. In the course of the pogrom night, the three sons were taken to Buchenwald and held there for some time. Max Gottschalk emigrated to the USA in 1939 and his brother Siegfried later followed him. The eldest brother Emil and his wife were first deported to Riga in 1941 and then to Auschwitz in 1943, where they were both murdered.

Moses Gottschalk and his wife Frieda had to leave Osnabrück on July 31, 1942 on a transport for the elderly bound for Theresienstadt. Frieda Gottschalk died there on December 7, 1943 and Moses Gottschalk a week later. Frieda and Moses Gottschalk presumably took the three books mentioned above with them to Theresienstadt, where they were incorporated into the ghetto library after their deaths at the latest. In spring 2025, we handed the books over to the descendants of their son Max Gottschalk in the USA.

Thanks

We would like to thank Anna Rubin from the Holocaust Claims Processing Office for her support in contacting the descendants in the USA.

Selected literature and sources

- Sellmeyer, Martina and Peter Junk: Stations on the way to Auschwitz, Bramsche, 2000.

- Wolbeck Marriage Register Name Index 1874-1943, No. Gem. Wolbeck HE-Reg. No. 01/1900 (https://www.archive.nrw.de/archivsuche)

- https://stolpersteine-guide.de/map/biografie/1325/familie-gottschalk

- https://www.holocaust.cz/en/database-of-victims/victim/12804-moses-gottschalk/, https://www.holocaust.cz/databaze-obeti/obet/12750-frieda-gottschalk/

- Proof of death/cremation Moses Gottschalk, Theresienstadt: https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/5033771

- Transport list to Theresienstadt (Transport XI/1 arrived on 01.08.1942 with 901 people from Münster): https: //www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/XI1-34.jpg

- Commercial register entry as cattle dealer in Osnabrück, (Hannoversches Tagblatt, 18.08.1922, p. 7 (entries in the commercial register on 08.08.1922): https: //www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/newspaper/item/K7ZG5WKJCP3BDSP3IXDN5MLPSY3HC3SX?issuepage=7

- Death notice mentioned in the “Aufbau” of 22.02.1946: https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/newspaper/item/UPA4PR44RNC6AIHMMTJFNWHS2KISAGJJ?issuepage=30

- Newspaper report on the laying of the Stolperstein: https: //geo.osnabrueck.de/allgemein/PDF/Stolpersteine_Pressespiegel/2009-09-19_Die_netten_Nachbarn_im_KZ_ermordet.pdf

- Interview with Ruth Voss from 1996 (wife of Max Gottschalk), Visual History Archive of the USC Shoa Foundation: https://vha.usc.edu/testimony/14728?from=search&seg=28

The three copies with Gottschalk's ownership note in the Looted Cultural Assets database

- Seligmann Baer: Leket Zebi / לקט צבי פר כולל תפלות ובקשות ושירות ותשבחות ולמודי משניות וגמרא ומוסר ואזהרה על ידי יצחק בן אריה יוסף דוב , Rödelheim 1861 (https://db.lootedculturalassets.de/index.php/Detail/objects/257510)

-סדר ההגדה של פסח , lecture on the two Pesach evenings, Hanover 1868 (https://db.lootedculturalassets.de/index.php/Detail/objects/260403, digital copy: https: //digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/pesach_abende1868)

- סדר ההגדה של פסח , lecture on the two Pesach evenings, Hanover 1868 (https://db.lootedculturalassets.de/index.php/Detail/objects/310337)

(Text: Ph. Zschommler)