The Schönewald family and the Kosses family, who lived at Bachstraße 9

The aim is to commemorate the fates of the Jewish Schönewald and Kosses families, who lived at Bachstra<e 9 in Paderborn before and during the Nazi era. Jakob Schönewald acquired the house in 1907, which was later taken over by his son Dagobert. The Schönewald family was deported to Riga in 1941, where only Selma Schönewald survived the ghetto. Her husband and two sons presumably died in Auschwitz in 1943.

Albert Kosses, also a resident of Bachstraße 9, married Bertha Schönewald. They had four children. Despite efforts to save the family from Germany, Albert, Bertha and their daughter Henni were deported to Theresienstadt in 1942 and later to Auschwitz, where they perished. Hans Kosses survived the Shoah and was liberated in 1945. Some of the other children were able to flee to the British Mandate of Palestine, England and later to Switzerland. The house at Bachstrasse 9 was destroyed by bombs in 1945 and rebuilt after the war as a hotel and restaurant. None of the surviving former residents returned to Paderborn. Selma Schönewald emigrated to Colombia and later to the USA, Hans Kosses emigrated to the USA in 1950, Hilde Kosses stayed in Israel, and Lieselotte Kosses followed her in 1948, later living in Switzerland.