Family Friedrich and Friedel Hopfeld

Friedrich Hopfeld operated with his wife Friedel née Moses at Nordhorn's Bahnhofstraße a well going textile business, according to self-advertisement: "Kaufhaus Hopfeld". Their daughter Helga was born in 1930 in Nordhorn.

Friedrich Hopfeld seems to have been a politically alert and courageous man who recognized the signs of the times early on. As early as 1924, he protested in a "völkisch meeting" against the agitation against Jews, which is why, in an advertisement in a local newspaper, the "National Socialist Freedom Movement" sneered against the "discussion speaker Hopfeld", saying that he was not a German, since he was not of "Germanic descent".

The discrimination expressed again and again showed him that his remaining in this Germany was no longer possible, and so he meticulously prepared the departure in time, arranged all financial circumstances, inquired locally in Detroit about possibilities of accommodation. In April 1937, he and the family finally arrived in Detroit via New York. Thus, the Hopfeld family is the only one of the twelve Jewish families of Nordhorn that survived united.