Josef Salomonson, born in 1860 in Nordhorn, was a leading member of the Jewish community. For a long time he held the chair, led the services and taught the boys in religious matters of Judaism. The fact that he knew a variety of languages: the regional Low German, Yiddish and Hebräisch, Dutch, English and French, came in handy in his commercial life.

Josef Salomonson died already in 1930; his wife Emma née Dankwert followed him in 1937. Both lie in the Nordhorn Jewish cemetery in a double grave – a relative novelty in view of the single graves prevailing so far.

Friedrich Salomonson was born in 1897 as the younger brother of the butcher Max Salomonson in Nordhorn. He was married to the two years äolder Niederländerin Esther Phillips. Both had two children: Lion was born in 1930 in Osnabrück, Hanni 1942 in Nordhorn.

In Hagen Street, the two Roozendaal families ran a modest used goods business that allowed only a poor standard of living. Both husbands had died very early: Mozes in 1920 at the age of 41, Salomon in 1912, 36 years old. The wives were left behind with four and three children, respectively. They were often provided with food by well-meaning neighbors.

In Nordhorn's main street the Oster family ran a textile business, known mainly for work clothes. They did not belong to the old-established Jewish families, but had immigrated. The family had two children: Max, the older one, and Margarete, called „Gretl“. Max married Ruth Rochacz from Leipzig. Both fled to the Netherlands in 1935, where two children were also born, Helga and Benjamin.

From 1933 Johannes Körner had a job at the employment office in Nordhorn (then at Lingener Straße 1). For this purpose, they moved from Lingen to the house of the Jewish family Schaap, Lingener Straße 51. Soon they demanded of him (who had been honored with the Iron Cross for his service in the World War) to separate from his Jewish wife - otherwise he would lose the job.

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.

The house Prollstra;e 5 (formerly Groüe Gartenstra;e 15) was declared a „Judenhaus“, i.e. all Jewish families still remaining in Nordhorn had to take up residence here from 1938. After the Süskind family had moved to Neuenhaus, these were only the old Oster couple and the Frank-de Vries family living in this house with their father-in-law Salomon de Vries. His age, combined with physical weakness, was the reason why the family had not fled, but initially remained in Nordhorn.

Only a short distance from the synagogue, Hijman Cohen and his wife Grietje, née Goldstein, both from the Netherlands, had been running a slaughterhouse with a focus on horse slaughtering since about 1910. The first children were still born in Enschede (Nathan, Hendrika and Rachel), another four in the münsterländische Ochtrup (Samuel, Salomon, Isaak and Jakob).

When Hijman and Grietje Cohen retired to Enschede in the 1920s, their son Isaak took over the family butcher store together with Margarete, née Gottschalk.

Originally, the Nordhorn Jewish community had two cemeteries, both located on Bentheimer Straße.
The old cemetery at Bentheimer Straße 183 was used until about 1864. In the course of road planning, this cemetery had to be closed - and a new cemetery on the other side of Bentheimer Straße 182b was occupied from 1864, where the graves are aligned to the east or southeast.