Ella Samson, née Dreifuß was born in Upper Franconian Lichtenfels on May 21, 1895 as the second daughter of Ludwig Dreifuß and his wife Klara, née Schloss. Her parents had married in Zell near Würzburg in 1891 and had then moved to Lichtenfels. Ella’s father already died in 1898. Then the widow moved to her mother in Würzburg with her two daughters and worked as a saleswoman with the firm Fa. Louis Hamburger.

Between 1914 and 1916, Ella Dreifuß worked in Würzburg as a clerk, moved to Bad Kissingen in June 1916 – at first into Hartmannstrasse 1 – and worked as an accounting clerk in the fashion house Ehrlich. Her mother and her older sister also moved into the Franconian spa town a little later, and for a short time, the whole family lived in a shared apartment in Maxstrasse. In October 1921, Ella Dreifuß checked out for Heilbronn.

In December 1937, she married the Frankfort-born Ludwig Samson in Frankfort. Ella’s last place of residence in Germany was Mainz. From there, Ella and her husband escaped to Genua/ Genova in Spring 1940 and emigrated to New York on board the “Washington”, where they arrived in April 1940. There they settled down. Ella Samson died there in September 1992 at the age of 97. Her husband Ludwig had already died in July 1975.

Ella’s mother Klara was deported together with Ella’s sister Julie and murdered.