The Josef Wolfromm Family

The bank attorney Josef Wolfromm was born in Cronheim March 3, 1883. His parents were Wolf Wolfromm, who was a teacher in Cronheim from 1882 to 1921, and his wife Gertrud, born Frank. On March 20, 1911 Josef Wolfromm married Frieda Marx, born January 2, 1888 in Roth.

Photos of Frieda and Josef Wolfromm

Photos of Frieda and Josef Wolfromm © Tom Breslauer

They had two children:

Herbert
born July 21, 1913 in Gunzenhausen.
Died in South Africa  1976
Herbert Wolfromm registered his departure for Nuernberg in 1930 already, and in 1936 he emigrated to South Africa.

Lisbeth
born January 20, 1916 in Gunzenhausen,
died 1974 in Stroudsburg, PA USA
Lisbeth Wolfromm registered her departure for Nuernberg in 1932 and emigrated to New York in 1938.
There she married Tom Breslauer, a survivor of concentration camp Dachau.
The couple had two sons:
James born February 1947,
Larry born June 1950

Lisbeth Wolfromm © Tom Breslauer

n 2007 we received a letter from Tom Breslauer, Lisbeth Wolfromms husband. He gave us the above information.

Until recently the city archive carried the notice that Frieda Wolfromm had been taken to Dachau and was presumed dead. Her husband was said to have emigrated to America.

However Mr Breslauer gave us the following account:

My mother-in-law was not in taken to a concentration camp, but my father-in-law was at Dachau at the same time that I was there. He had been apprehended in Gunzenhausen, and I in Offenbach.

After his liberation Josef Wolfromm and his wife lived in England until they had the opportunity to emigrate to the USA. Frieda worked as a maid until then.

We were living in Stroudsburg PA, and my wife Lisbeth was working as a nanny.

Her employers provided an affidavit with which they vouched for Lisbeth’s parents, and they were able to come to the USA. In New York they both worked in a factory until after a few years Josef got a job as an accountant. Frieda worked in the factory till she was 65.

Josef died in New York City in June 1977, his wife Frieda in February 1980.

Tom Breslauer told us the following about his own life:

I was born October 22, 1916 in Hamburg, Germany, six weeks after my father had died in WWI in the “Battle on the Somme River”.

My whole family perished in concentration camps. My mother was killed in Riga in December 1941.

In 2005 I visited the City of Hamburg, which had sent me an invitation to attend the dedication ceremony of a plaque that was being  placed in the front of our former home.

I have spent the last 18 years traveling all over the USA, speaking to students about my life in the Third Reich. During that time I received over 7000 letters from these young people.