Arthur Wittekind came from a long-established Jewish family of Bad Kissingen whose roots can be traced back to the beginning of the 19^th century. He was born in Bad Kissingen on September 10, 1900 as the third of four children of the merchant Wilhelm Wittekind and his wife Fanny, née Mendle, who was born in Swabian Fischach. The family lived in “Villa Paula” in Promenadestrasse 5a.

Between September 1911 and June 1917, Arthur Wittekind attended Kissingen Realschule. There was not always harmony between him and his teachers as a written complaint by his father to the director of the school shows. In it, Wilhelm Wittekind deplores that Rabbi Dr. Bamberger, his son’s teacher of Religious Education, had given Arthur Wittekind “three slaps in the face in the most brutal manner in a public street” and asks the director of the school for a disciplinary examination of “this illegal behavior”.

Obviously, the only 17-year-old Arthur Wittekind was drafted as a soldier at the end of World War I as – according to his registration card - he was released from military service in December 1918 and returned to his parents. Between 1919 and 1922, he lived in Fürth where he possibly apprenticed to become a merchant. From November 1924 to May 1933, he was registered in his hometown again. Arthur Wittekind married Rosa (Rosi) Wittekind, a distant relative, who was born in Koenigsberg/ Prussia. Her father was the factory owner Arnold (Aron) Wittekind who had been born in Bad Kissingen in 1856 and had married Sonja Lembrowski from Koenigsberg. Arthur’s and Rosi’s grandfathers on his father’s side were siblings. In May 1933, Arthur Wittekind left Bad Kissingen and moved (according to registration files of Bad Kissingen Archive) to Frankfort (or Koenigsberg?). In 1933/34 he worked as a representative for leather goods for two companies from Offenbach and Hainstadt. In 1936, he is registered as a commercial clerk in Leipzig.

There is only scarce information on his further life. Arthur Wittekind and his wife Rosi succeeded in fleeing from Germany. In the database “Karten jüdischer vertriebener Personen und Flüchtlinge aus München, Wien und Barcelona (cards of Jewish expelled persons and refugees from Munich, Vienna and Barcelona, 1943-1959 (JDC)) there is a card that informs you that Arthur and Rosi Wittekind with Edgar Wittekind (presumably their son) could flee from Barcelona to North America in December 1942. The family lived in Toronto/ Canada. Arthur Wittekind was an importeur and distributor of toys, sundries and leather goods there.

Arthur Wittekind died in North York in Ontario/ Canada in January 1985 at the age of 84. His wife Rose outlived him by 12 years and died few days before her 100^th birthday in September 1997.