The widely extended Selig family had lived in Hechtsheim for several generations and earned their living as fruit, grain and livestock traders. Simon Selig I, born in Wiesenbronn near Würzburg in 1783 and naturalised in Hechtsheim in 1813, was one of the first two Israelite heads of household known to us in the village, along with Benjamin Kapp, whose children went to the local primary school in the 1820s. went to the local primary school. He was Siegfried Josef Selig’s great-grandfather.
Siegfried Josef Selig (originally called Siegfried Gustav) was born in Hechtsheim on 10 May 1868. He was one of six children of the fruit merchant Ludwig Selig, born in 1834, and his first wife Esther, née Sondheimer, who died in 1873. In February 1900, he married Antonie Kahn from Büdesheim near Friedberg, who was born there on 12 January 1874. Siegfried Josef Selig ran an animal feed and agricultural trade and lived with his family in his own house at Breite Straße 2 (renamed Hindenburgstraße from 1933 to 1945, today Bürgermeister-Keim-Straße). His daughters Emma and Cäcilie were born in 1901 and 1904 respectively. After attending Hechtsheim primary school, they both went to the Mainz Secondary School for Girls from 1911 to 1916 and 1914 to 1919 respectively.
In 1923, Emma married the merchant Siegmund Weis from Nordenstadt, which is now part of Wiesbaden, and five years later Cäcilie married his younger brother Max Weis, also a merchant by profession. The brothers were the owners of a wholesale business for grain, animal feed and other agricultural products, which they had taken over from their grandfather and father and moved to Wiesbaden in 1917. The company warehouse was located on the site of the former Wiesbaden goods railway station. While Cäcilie and Max remained childless, Emma and Siegmund’s daughter Ruth Ingeborg was born in 1924.
The harassment of Siegfried Josef and Antonie Selig began early on in the Nazi era in Hechtsheim. Their daughter Emma had already moved to the Netherlands with her husband and daughter in August 1933, soon after the Nazi regime came to power. Siegmund and Max Weis had business connections. The family lived in Rotterdam at the time. In December 1933, Emma’s parents applied for a passport so that they could visit her. The Mainz district office, now under Nazi control, refused on the grounds that four Jews from Hechtsheim, whose windows had been smashed shortly before, had been taken into ‘protective custody for their own safety’ and that it could be assumed ‘that the Jew Selig would spread distorted stories abroad that were detrimental to Germany’s reputation’. Cynically, it was added: ‘Selig will therefore by no means be travelling abroad again, but will have leisure in Hechtsheim to cover any communal or private debts.’ However, there was absolutely no reason for the latter assumption. Under these circumstances, there was no prospect of emigration. In the years that followed, Siegfried Josef Selig must have found it increasingly difficult to sell his products, as Jewish businesses were boycotted everywhere and successively banned.
In the pogrom night of 9/10 November 1938, the house of Siegfried Josef and Antonie Selig was completely destroyed by Nazi hordes. Staying was therefore out of the question. The couple’s de-registration to Rotterdam in mid-December of that year was cancelled cancelled by the authorities. Under the pressure of the political situation, the Seligs were forced to move to Gartenfeldstraße 15 in Wiesbaden on 22 December 1938 – the house belonged to the Weis brothers – and leave Hechtsheim.
From Wiesbaden, the Seligs managed to flee to the Netherlands in January 1939. However, after the invasion of the Wehrmacht in May 1940, they found themselves in a hopeless trap. Their last known home address was Oosthaven 31, the Central Jewish Old People’s Home of the city of Gouda. Siegfried Josef Selig died there on 30 September 1942 at the age of 74 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Gouda. On 9 April 1943, a Friday evening and thus the beginning of Shabbat, all the residents of the Jewish old people’s home in Gouda, including Antonie Selig, were forced to leave the home and taken to the Westerbork concentration and transit camp. From there, Antonie Selig was deported to Sobibór to her death shortly afterwards, on 23 April 1943. She was 70 years old at the time.
While daughter Cäcilie and her husband Max managed to escape the Nazi regime to South Africa in 1939, daughter Emma and granddaughter Ruth Ingeborg were unable to escape a violent death. Emma’s husband Siegmund Weis had already died in Rotterdam in February 1940 and was buried there. The following year, Emma Weis moved to Wijdstraat 17 in Gouda, where she last lived at Gouwe 123. In the course of the numerous arrests of Jews living in the Netherlands, she was also sent to the Westerbork camp. There is one last postcard from here to Gouda, dated 1 June 1943, with only a heartfelt thank you. Emma Weis, née Selig, began her journey to her death in Auschwitz on 3 September 1943 at the age of 42. Her daughter Ruth Ingeborg had already been deported to Sobibór and murdered at the end of May of that year at the age of 18.
HT: https://www.beer-mainz.de/
Source: Hechtsheim Local History Association, edited by Mrs Renate Knigge-Tesche.
And here’s something that still – after over 40 years – sends shivers up my spine.
BAP is a politically active band from Cologne, sing in the local dialect (and once did an open-air gig in my father-in-law’s fields.)
They wrote this song – Kristallnaach – in 1982.
Superbly crafted, with a doom-laden threatening introduction, increasing in intensity and exploding violently into a faster – almost frenetic – structure. Think: from 1933 to 1938 with the gradual restrictions on Jewish citizens – stripped of their citizenship, limited to a few possessions, excluded from community access and then the pogrom, with hordes burning, looting, wrecking and murdering.
It’s as valid to as it was in 1982.
Lyrics (with a machine translation and a bit of fine tuning)
Sometimes I think I hear something shattering
Es kommt vor, daß ich meine, daß etwas klirrt
That something ‘s not right
Daß sich irgendetwas in mich verirrt
A sound, not even loud
Ein Geräusch, nicht einmal laut
Sometimes it sounds familiar
Manchmal klirrt es vertraut
Rarely in such a way that you can see straight through it
Selten so, daß man es direkt durchschaut
You wake up, rub your eyes and see
Man wird wach, reibt die Augen und sieht
In a picture between Brueghel and Bosch
In einem Bild zwischen Brueghel und Bosch
No one cares about sirens
Keinen Menschen, der um Sirenen etwas gibt
Because the all-clear only costs half as much
Weil Entwarnung nur halb soviel kostet
It smells like Kristallnacht
Es riecht nach Kristallnacht
In the calm before the storm, what is that?
In der Ruhe vor dem Sturm, was ist das?
Someone leaves the city very secretly
Ganz klammheimlich verlässt wer die Stadt
Incognito dignitaries scurry past
Honoratioren inkognito hasten vorbei
Officially they’re not involved
Offiziell sind die nicht gerne dabei
When the people’s soul is always ready
Wenn die Volksseele, allzeit bereit
Rages and screams towards boiling point
Richtung Siedepunkt wütet und schreit
A hunter’s trumpet and endlessly cool
“Heil Halali” und grenzenlos geil
Raging for retribution
Nach Vergeltung brüllt
Trembling with envy
Zitternd vor Neid
On Kristallnacht
In der Kristallnacht
But everything that is different irritates
Doch die alles, was anders ist, stört
Who go with the flow, as they should
Die mit dem Strom schwimmen, wie es sich gehört
For whom gays are criminals
Für die Schwule Verbrecher sind
Foreigners are lepers
Ausländer Aussatz sind
Need someone to lure them away
Brauchen wer, der sie verführt
There’s no cavalry to
Und dann rettet keine Kavallerie
Zorro won’t get involved
Kein Zorro kümmert sich darum
He’ll just piss his “Z” in the snow
Der pisst höchsten ein “Z” in den Schnee
And falls over, slurring with nonchalance
Und fällt lallend vor Lässigkeit um
“So what? Kristallnacht
“Na und? Kristallnacht
Crystal Night!
Kristallnacht!
In the church with the Franz Kafka clock
In der Kirche mit der Franz Kafka-Uhr
Without hands , only markings
Ohne Zeiger mit Strichen darauf nur
A blind man reads Struwwelpeter to a deaf man
Liest ein Blinder einem Tauben Struwwelpeter vor
Behind a triple-locked door
Hinter dreifach verriegelter Tür
And the guard with the key ring seriously thinks
Und der Wächter mit dem Schlüsselbund hält
That he’s something of a genius
Sich im Ernst für so etwas wie ein Genie
Because he crushes the waysout
Weil er Auswege pulverisiert
And sells against claustrophobia
Und verkauft gegen Klaustrophobie
On Kristallnacht
In der Kristallnacht
Meanwhile, on the market square perhaps
Währenddessen, am Marktplatz vielleicht
Unmasked, with a true face today
Unmaskiert, heute mit einem wahren Gesicht
Collect stones, sharpen the knife
Sammelt Steine, schleift das Messer
For those who have already snitched
Auf die, die schon verpetzt
The lynch mob is rehearsing for the final judgment
Probt der Lynch-Mob für das jüngste Gericht
And only briefly moored for loading
Und zum Laden nur flüchtig vertäut
The galleys have long been under power
Die Galeeren stehen längst unter Dampf
Waiting for slaves in the harbor
Wird im Hafen auf Sklaven gewartet
On the scrap heap from the unequal fight
Auf den Schrott aus dem ungleichen Kampf
From Kristallnacht
Aus der Kristallnacht
Where Darwin is for everything
Da, wo Darwin für alles herhält
Whether you drive people away or torture them
Ob man Menschen vertreibt oder quält
Where there is money behind power
Da, wo hinter Macht Geld ist
Where being strong is the world
Wo stark sein die Welt ist
Disfigured by cowering and standing at attention
Von Kuschen und Strammstehen entstellt
Where hymns are even blown on the comb
Wo man Hymnen auf dem Kamm sogar bläst
In a barbaric greed for profit
In barbarischer Gier nach Profit
“Hosanna” and “Crucify Him!”
“Hosianna” und “Kreuzigt ihn!”
calls
ruft
If you see any advantage in it
Wenn man irgendeinen Vorteil darin sieht
It’s Kristallnacht every day
Ist täglich Kristallnacht
On Kristallnacht
In der Kristallnacht
In the, in the, in the
In der, in der, in der
On Kristallnacht
In der Kristallnacht
Mainz Daily Photo 
Fine picture, good to conmermorate