Survival in WWII, 1933–1944 · Alfred Moritz (alias Mauricet)

Grandfather,
Lazarus Kaufmann

he old Greek-Jewish name, Kalonymos, was borne by a family from Byzantium which, at the end of the tenth century, settled in Lucca (Italy) and thereafter moved to the Rhineland.

In 1770, a man of letters, Calman Lieffmann (Rabbi Elieser ben Rabbi Kalonymos), moved from Kassel to Gustdorf/Gindorf near Cologne. He married the daughter of a Joseph Moses (born 1720) whose ancestors are recorded in the area as early as 1575.

In 1808, with Jews forced to take secular names, Elieser Kalonymos alias Lieffmann Calman became Philipp Kaufmann. He wed Sibilla Schönfeld, the former Beyle bath Yosef.

Grandmother,
Sara Baruch Kaufmann

Their son, Abraham (Lieffmann) Kaufmann (1793–1875) married Caroline Schönfeld (1803–1872). Their son, my great grand-father Moses Conrad Kaufmann (1828–1897) wed Yetta Harf.

The son of Moses and Yetta was my mother's father, Reb.Elieser ben Reb.Kalonymos, known as Lazarus Kaufmann (1857–1910). A cigar-maker, he married Sara Baruch from Oberbieber (10.22.1859–3.16.1944).

Grandmother Sara attended school in a 1720 wood-timbered schoolhouse in nearby Heddesdorf which, as fate would have it, was declared "of historical interest" and relocated to the Bad-Sobernheim open-air museum, in the near vicinity of Becherbach.