Without the help and support of numerous participants the online memorial book on hand on Bad Kissingen Jews wouldn’t have been possible. We say thank you very heartily to all the people who supported us during our researches over many years and with the realization of this memorial project.

Particularly on the well-known Jewish families of the spa town there have been biographical sketches in various publications such as Beck/ Walter, “Jüdisches Leben in Bad Kissingen” (Jewish Life in Bad Kissingen), Mence/ Binder, “Letzte Spuren” (Last Traces) and “Nachbarn der Vergangenheit” (Neighbors of the Past). In addition, the Stolpersteininitiative (Stumblestone Initiative) Bad Kissingen launched in 2009 and its authors provided short biographies of more than 70 victims of the Shoa. Furthermore, Hans-Jürgen Becks unpublished manuscript “Kissingen war unsere Heimat über Jahrhunderte” has been an important source for numerous biographies. 

Startingpoints for further research were the central data bases on the Internet, among them the “Gedenkbuch Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945” (Memorial Book on the Victims of the Persecution of Jews during National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933-1945) by Bundesarchiv in Koblenz (Federal Archive in Koblenz), the Central Data Base of Yad Vashem, “Joods Monument”, “US Holocaust Memorial Museum/ Survivors & Victims” as well as regional data bases such as “Biographisches Gedenkbuch Jüdisches Unterfranken” (Biographical Memorial Book Jewish Lower Franconia) and the website “Alemannia Judaica”. By using family data bases such as “genicom”, “ancestry”, “family search”, “myheritage” we came across many names up to then unknown to us and could reconstruct familial connections. 

As many Kissingen Jews lived in other towns for some time, the Internet research of Stumblestones Initiatives and memorial projects of other town proved helpful.

The evaluation of the student files of more than 200 Jewish students who attended Kissinger Realschule, the predecessor of contemporary Jack-Steinberger-Gymnasium, between 1871 and 1935 was a starting point for following up their destinies – as far as possible.

Particularly by research in Bad Kissingen Stadtarchiv (Municipal Archive) in family cards, registration cards, apartment notifications, registers of birth as well as directories important information could be gathered. Our special thanks go to Frau Evelyn Bartetzko who tirelessly and competently tracked down the desired sources.

We would also like to thank the more than hundred town, village and regional archives who without any exception all responded in a positive and supportive manner to our research questions that in some cases were rather extensive. The contact to local historians and experts on local Jewish family history often helped us to complete biographies.

And finally, our particularly cordial thanks go to the relatives of the Jewish families from Bad Kissingen we were able to get into contact with in the last decades. We are grateful for a lot of information, hints of where to learn more, photos and other documents, partly also family biographies and personal contacts we will never forget.

Out final thanks are for Kulturreferent (Cultural Advisor) Peter Weidisch who encouraged and supported the memorial project right from the start and Bad Kissingen Town Council who covered the costs for it and made the presentation of the Biographical Memorial Book on its homepage possible.

The following index of sources contains the most important data bases, archives and literature used for research. The itemization of the sources used and the photos, are to be found in or after the short biographies. 

Rudolf and Marlies Walter

Go to Sources