Selma Kissinger was born in Bad Kissingen on May 29, 1877 as the daughter of Max Kissinger and his first wife Dina, née Frank. She is a great granddaughter of Meyer ben Loeb, the ancestor of the Kissinger family who went to Bad Kissingen roughly towards the end of the 18^th century to start a family there. He supposedly adopted the family’s name as ‘Kissinger’ around 1817 after he had left Kissingen and settled in Rödelsee. His son Loeb Kissinger who had been born in Kissingen eventually returned to the place of his birth and started the Kissingen branch of the Kissinger family.

Selma’s father Max Kissinger owned a flourishing men’s clothes business cum tailoring at Marktplatz. In that house, she grew up together with her three siblings and the two half-brothers from the second wedlock of her father.

In May 1904, she married Emil Wolff who came from Kreuznach and traded with scrap iron and rags. The Wolffs had two daughters, who were both born in Bad Kreuznach: The first one was Ellen Maria Ernestine Wolff (1906-2003) who in 1932, married Kurt Herz (1903-1992) from Offenbach and emigrated to America with him in September 1940 after a one and a half years’ stay in England. The second one was Lore Wolff (*1912) who married her husband Fred Simon (1906-79) from Berlin and started a family with him in Johannesburg.

In the course of the Aryanization, Selma Wolff and her husband Emil were forced to sell their house in Bad Kreuznach below value and tried to survive in the anonymity of the city of Cologne. They stayed there until they were deported. Selma Wolff (who distinguished herself by her great volunteer work) was deported from Cologne to Lodz Ghetto on October 30, 1941 and from there was taken on to Kulmhof Extermination Camp in the Polish town of Chelmo in May 1942 where she died. Her husband was also deported from Cologne to Lodz in October 1941 and also taken to Kulmhof/ Chelmo in May 1942 where he was also murdered.