The family
One family, many lives
Faces first. 43 lives in this archive. The family tree shows how the households connect.
Showing 43 people
Possibly Jacob; identification unconfirmed. Restored presentation image.He opened the Halberstadt clothing house the family carried forward.Jacob Reichenbach
c. 1814–1817 — 17 December 1872
Jacob was the earliest documented proprietor of the family clothing house in Halberstadt. The firm later remembered 1843 as its founding year.
In 1900 she was living in Wernigerode.Helene Reichenbach née Heinemann
11 January 1823 — 12 October 1903
Helene and Jacob Reichenbach raised the generation that carried the family shop from Halberstadt to Wernigerode. Three records preserve her surname in three close spellings: Heinemann, Heynemann and Heynemann-Loewenhain.
He built the family store and made a civic life in Halberstadt.Paul Reichenbach
20 October 1876 — 20 November 1935
Paul sold clothes at Hoher Weg 27, climbed with the Halberstadt Alpine Club and served Jewish civic organizations. With Margarete, he raised Ruth and Dolf.
Dolf wrote to her from St. Moritz four days after Fritz’s death.Margarete Reichenbach née Liebenthal
1889 — 7 August 1966
Margarete raised Ruth and Dolf with Paul in Halberstadt. After Paul’s death, Dolf’s St. Moritz letter asked her to leave Germany and imagine the family together again.
He wrote to his mother from St. Moritz and rebuilt his life in America.Adolf “Dolf” Reichenbach
15 December 1914 — 28 December 1979
Dolf wrote the St. Moritz letter at twenty-three, escaped Germany and began again in Massachusetts. He became a clothing designer, married Subie and raised Paul and Susan.
She left Germany and built a life in Massachusetts.Ruth Helene Reichenbach
16 May 1909 — 26 November 1987
Ruth grew up in Halberstadt as Paul and Margarete’s daughter and Dolf’s sister. She left Germany, made a life in Massachusetts and died in Norwood at seventy-eight.
He carried the family business from Halberstadt to Wernigerode.Salomon Gustav Reichenbach
19 August 1848 — 19 June 1928
Gustav was Adolf’s brother. He moved to Wernigerode, married Jeanette Rosenbaum and helped establish the shop where their son Fritz grew up.
Her initial stayed above the shop windows.Jeanette Reichenbach née Rosenbaum
26 October 1859 — 25 October 1942
Jeanette kept the clothing shop at Breite Straße 7, sat at its till into the 1930s and remained its owner. The large J. Reichenbach sign carried her initial.
He kept the shop at Breite Straße 7.Fritz Reichenbach
14 March 1884, Wernigerode — 22 November 1938, Buchenwald
Fritz was Jeanette and Gustav’s only son. He took on the clothing shop at Breite Straße 7, married Martha Pohly of Göttingen and raised their son Werner in Wernigerode.
He was Ludwig and Pauline Reichenbach’s son and worked in Halberstadt.Kurt Reichenbach
26 May 1889, Halberstadt — last named Warsaw, 16 April 1942
Registered as Curt in 1889, Kurt was Paula Wollenberg’s and Antonie Weiss’s brother. The records follow him from the family household to Buchenwald, a forced address in Halberstadt and the April 1942 transport to Warsaw.
She lived with Georg and Hans in Halberstadt.Paula Wollenberg née Reichenbach
18 April 1877, Halberstadt — last named Warsaw, 16 April 1942
Paula was Kurt Reichenbach’s and Antonie Weiss’s sister, Georg Wollenberg’s wife and Hans Adalbert’s mother. She was forced from Halberstadt on 12 April 1942. Her named record ends in Warsaw.
He worked in the family clothing business.Hans Adalbert Wollenberg
3 June 1907, Eisenach — last named Warsaw, 16 April 1942
Hans was Paula and Georg Wollenberg’s son. He worked in J. Reichenbach, lived with his mother at Westendorf 15 and was taken with her from Halberstadt in April 1942.
She lived over the clothing shop at Breite Straße 7.Martha Reichenbach née Pohly
15 November 1889, Göttingen — deported 3 March 1943 from Berlin
Martha was Fritz’s wife and Werner’s mother. In Berlin she lived a half-life as a worker and subtenant at Normannenstraße 2 before the Gestapo took her property and the Berlin deportation list placed her in a transport classed for Auschwitz.
He ran the women’s-fashion business with his brother Paul.Ernst Reichenbach
25 March 1885 — 27 November 1942
Ernst grew up at Hoher Weg 27 and spent his working life in the family’s Halberstadt shops. He signed his niece Ruth’s marriage record and shared the women’s-fashion business with his brother Paul.
He was connected to the Technische Hochschule Berlin.Max Reichenbach
15 July 1882 – 18 January 1940
Max was born at Hoher Weg on 15 July 1882, Paul and Ernst’s brother. By 1939 he lived at Dohnenstieg 25 in Berlin-Dahlem, with a recorded tie to the Technische Hochschule, before Sachsenhausen and a death in Berlin on 18 January 1940.
She was Paula and Kurt’s sister.Antonie Weiss née Reichenbach
6 April 1879, Halberstadt — last known Poland, July 1942
Antonie was Ludwig Reichenbach and Pauline Asch’s daughter, Paula Wollenberg’s and Kurt Reichenbach’s sister, and Hugo Weiss’s wife. She was deported on the same April 1942 train to Warsaw.
He carried the Halberstadt shop into its second generation.Adolf (Adolph) Reichenbach
1843 or 1844 — 26 December 1900
Adolph was Jacob and Helene’s son, Goldine’s husband and Paul’s father. He carried the family’s working life forward in Halberstadt.
She came from Schwerin and raised her family in Halberstadt.Goldine Marcuse Reichenbach
8 February 1850 — 12 October 1913
Goldine Marcuse was born in Schwerin on 8 February 1850. She married Adolf Reichenbach there on 27 July 1872 and raised Paul in Halberstadt.
He died as a child in Halberstadt.David Otto Reichenbach
1851 — 20 August 1857
David Otto was a child in Jacob and Helene’s Halberstadt household. The cemetery register says he was born in 1851 and buried on 20 August 1857 in the older Am Berge Jewish cemetery. No portrait or civil birth act has yet been found.
He worked in J. Reichenbach and Jewish communal life in Halberstadt.Ludwig Reichenbach
c. 1846 — 7 May 1920
Ludwig worked in J. Reichenbach, owned Martiniplan 10 and served Halberstadt’s Jewish social and welfare institutions. With Lina or Pauline Asch, he was the father of Paula, Antonie and Kurt.
The records name her as Ludwig’s wife and Paula, Antonie and Kurt’s mother.Lina Reichenbach née Asch
Died December 1918 · exact day unresolved
Lina — written Pauline in later acts — was Ludwig Reichenbach’s wife and the mother of Paula, Antonie and Kurt. The Halberstadt register uses both given names in the same household. She died in December 1918; the family chart and the cemetery register disagree by ten days.
He married Paula and worked in the Reichenbach clothing business.Georg Wollenberg
7 February 1871 — 18 August 1938
Paula Reichenbach’s husband, a partner in J. Reichenbach and the probable ‘Uncle Georg’ in Dolf’s wedding song.
She was Margarete’s mother, from Hettstedt.Jenny Liebenthal née Schottländer
Engaged at Pentecost 1887
Jenny Schottländer grew up in Hettstedt, the only daughter of L. Schottländer and his wife née Salzmann. At Pentecost 1887 the family printed her engagement to Philipp Liebenthal, a merchant of Halle. She became Margarete’s mother.
He was Margarete’s father, a merchant in Halle.Philipp Liebenthal
Merchant of Halle · engaged 1887
Philipp Liebenthal was a merchant in Halle. At Pentecost 1887 a printed notice from Hettstedt named him as Jenny Schottländer’s intended husband. Their daughter Margarete married Paul Reichenbach in 1908.
Her 1931 death notice gathers the Frankfurt and Reichenbach households.Anna Jacob née Reichenbach
Died 14 June 1931
Anna Jacob née Reichenbach died in Frankfurt on 14 June 1931, at Schubertstraße 14, at 7:15 in the morning. She was fifty-one, born in Halberstadt, and married to Bankdirektor Julius Jacob. The newspaper notice that followed named their son Adolf and gathered Paul, Max, Else and Ernst as mourners.
He made his working life in Frankfurt banking.Julius Jacob
Documented in Frankfurt, 1918–1934
Julius Jacob was a Frankfurt bank director. After years at Schubertstraße 13, the 1934 address book lists him at Savigny-Straße 22 with the same telephone number. His fate after mid-1934 remains unknown.
In 1909 the newspaper named her beside Siegfried Sernau.Else Sernau née Reichenbach
Documented in 1909 and 1931
In January 1909 the Hallesche Zeitung printed marriage banns for Else Reichenbach of Halberstadt and the merchant Siegfried Sernau of Halle. Twenty-two years later, as Else Sernau née Reichenbach, she stood among Paul, Max and Ernst as a mourner for Anna Jacob. Family memory keeps a relative called Liesl; no record yet says they were the same person.
In 1909 the newspaper named him beside Else Reichenbach.Siegfried Sernau
Documented in Halle, 1909
Siegfried Sernau was a merchant in Halle. On 17 January 1909 the newspaper named him beside Else Reichenbach of Halberstadt. Else’s 1931 married name makes the marriage very likely; the civil act has not been found.
He traded in Quedlinburg and was buried in Halberstadt.Moritz Reichenbach · Moshe HaLevi
died 6 June 1936
Recorded as Moritz Reichenbach in the cemetery register and as Moshe HaLevi on his wife Miriam Mathilde’s Hebrew gravestone.
Her gravestone joins the Hebrew name Miriam to Mathilde Reichenbach.Miriam Mathilde Reichenbach née Loewenthal
died 17 December 1928
Her Hebrew stone in Halberstadt names her Miriam Mathilde, wife of Moshe HaLevi Reichenbach. The cemetery register adds Loewenthal and places her in plot VIII 5, beside Moritz. She died on 17 December 1928.
He married Ruth in Halberstadt in 1930.Dr. Martin Pützrath
Born 25 November 1899 · documented through 1932
Dr. Martin Pützrath was born in Liegnitz on 25 November 1899. He married Ruth Helene Reichenbach in Halberstadt in 1930, with Paul and Ernst as witnesses. A Berlin court dissolved the marriage on 11 August 1932. After that date this archive does not yet know what happened to him.
He ran the M. Reichenbach gut-casings firm.Kurt Reichenbach, gut-casings merchant
Recorded in Halberstadt, 1928–1941
This Kurt kept the M. Reichenbach gut-casings house in Halberstadt. The 1928 directory puts him at Sedanstraße 62 and the firm at Gerberstraße 12 — the same pages that list the other Kurt with the clothing shop.
She survived the 1944 transport from Berlin.Rosalie Reichenbach née Rosenberg
5 October 1890, Berlin — survived after August 1944
Rosalie was Ernst Reichenbach’s wife. She shared his Berlin household, was taken from Normannenstraße 2 in August 1944 and survived.
He married Ruth in 1933 and left Germany with her.Albert Rothschild
Married Ruth Reichenbach on 3 August 1933
Albert married Ruth Reichenbach in Halberstadt on 3 August 1933. Dolf’s wedding song already calls him a brother. The verses put the courtship in Schierke the winter before, then bring Albert to Halberstadt as a visitor the family was told not to announce.
He rebuilt his life in Brazil.Werner Reichenbach
13 March 1914, Wernigerode — 1992, Brazil
Werner grew up over the family shop at Breite Straße 7. He escaped Germany with his wife Margarete in 1939 and rebuilt a family life in Brazil.
He built a working life in hospitality and on Cape Cod.Herbert ‘Herb’ Jacob
16 June 1937 — 9 January 2026
A refugee family’s son who built a long working life in hospitality and on Cape Cod.
He grew up with Herbert in Washington Heights.Vernon Jacob
Living
The elder son in the Jacob family’s later American household, remembered across two living generations.
At Simmons, classmates already called her Subie.Susan “Subie” Ulmer Reichenbach
3 April 1921 — 6 June 2018
Subie grew up in Cleveland, earned a Bachelor of Science at Simmons in 1943 and built a family life with Dolf in Massachusetts.
Subie’s father.Jacob Morton “Yank” Ulmer
19 November 1886 — 2 November 1972
Subie’s father. Shreve, then Cleveland law, the Ulmer firm, and later eye research.
Her Cleveland Heights home remained Subie’s family address through college.Fan Berne Ulmer
1889 — 1958
Fan made her home with Yank in Cleveland Heights and was the mother of Janet and Susan “Subie” Ulmer.
Subie’s grandfather.Solomon Ulmer
1856 — 20 July 1937
Subie’s grandfather. Hungary, then Cleveland’s S. Ulmer & Sons.
He built Jewish life with teenagers, at camp and in Israel.Paul J. Reichenbach
11 January 1952 — 13 September 2026
Dolf’s son grew up with the knowledge of his father’s escape. He made camps, Israel journeys and Jewish youth leadership his life’s work.
He returned the family’s record to public history.Rabbi Daniel Dolph Reichenbach
Living
Paul J.’s son carries Dolf’s name into a life shaped by Israel, Jewish education, the rabbinate and the work of returning family memory to public history.
The family togetherDolf, Margarete and Paul ReichenbachBefore November 1935 · Continue to the family narrativeCurated path. Begin with the German households, then follow persecution, flight and the American family.
Living relatives appear only with family-approved public information; current addresses and other private details are withheld.