Selma Dreifuß was born in the Upper Franconian town of Lichtenfels on October 19, 1892 as the oldest daughter of Ludwig Dreifuß and his wife Klara, née Schloß. Her parents had married in Zell near Würzburg in 1891 and then had moved to Lichtenfels. Their second daughter Ella was born there in 1895. Selma’s father died few years later. Then the widow moved to Würzburg with her two daughters in 1908 to live with her mother there. She worked as a sales assistant with Louis Hamburger Company.

Selma seems to have lived in Wiesbaden for some time, perhaps with her aunt Julie (her mother’s sister), whose husband was a butcher and had a small poultry trade in Wiesbaden. She apprenticed for becoming an accountant and in October 1919 moved from Wiesbaden to her mother in Bad Kissingen. As Selma’s younger sister Ella had been living in Bad Kissingen since 1916, her mother had also moved there later. Apart from a short stay in Berlin (1923-24), Selma lived in Maxstrasse 5 till October 1933, before she left for Den Haag. In her file, however, there is also mentioned that she moved to Stuttgart in November 1937. 

In March 1938, the 45-year-old Selma Dreifuß left Wiesbaden, went on board the ship “Hansa” in Hamburg and emigrated to New York.

Selma’s younger sister also succeeded in emigrating to the United States later; her mother Klara, however, was deported with their sister Julie and murdered.

Selma Dreifuss married Christos Pappas, who was born in Cyprus and has lived in the USA since 1913, in September 1940. She died on September 9, 1965 at the age of 72.