Haus Schiff

The memorial stele in front of the house at Lange Straße 68 commemorates the former location of the residential and commercial building of the Jewish Schiff family. Of all the Jewish families, the Schiff family probably lived in Bad Driburg the longest. Moses Schiff was born in Bad Driburg on 27.07.1864.
He was a well-known merchant in the town who traded in hides, skins and old materials. His wife Philippine, who was three years younger, ran a small boarding house and a store in the house where she sold hats, cleaning and fashion goods. During the Pogrom Night of 1938, the windows of the Schiff boarding house were smashed and Moses Schiff was arrested for some time along with other Jewish men. From 1941, all Jews living in Bad Driburg were forcibly quartered in the Schiff family home. In such a "Jews' house", the people lived together in catastrophic living conditions in a very small space and were monitored by the Gestapo.
The "Jews' houses" were intended to create living space for the "Aryan" part of the population. At the same time, they facilitated the organization of the mass extermination of Jews under National Socialism. The Schiff family home became the starting point for the deportations. In the region around Bad Driburg, the Jews were taken eastwards on trains via Bielefeld station. Their last possessions were taken from them at the station.

Deportation & Murder
The Schiff family was torn apart on 30.03.1942, when daughters Paula and Hertha were deported to Warsaw.
Only a few months later, on 28.07.1942, Moses and Philippine were also forced to leave Bad Driburg. They were taken to the so-called "old ghetto" of the Theresienstadt concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic. None of the four survived the concentration camps. Only their son Rudolf was able to emigrate to the USA before the outbreak of the Second World War and support his parents from there until their deportation. Daughter Erna married the Catholic glass merchant August Böger in 1933. The "mixed marriage" initially saved her from deportation. It was not until 1944 that she was sent to the notorious Elben women's camp near Kassel. Her husband managed to free her from the camp with a medical certificate after she had fallen seriously ill. He brought her back to Bad Driburg, 80 kilometers away, on a sledge in the ice and snow. She was hidden in the cellar by neighbors until the end of the war.
The Schiff family home was demolished in 1995. In 2008, on the initiative of the non-profit association "Bürgerpunkt"
the sandstone stele was erected.

Image sources: Unless otherwise indicated, the images come from the archives of the town of Bad Driburg, Meiners, Herzog or Gehle.