Emma Seliger

Eintrag im »Gedenkbuch« des Bundesarchivs:

Selinger [=Seliger!], Emma geborene Schwager geboren am 12. Januar 1890 in Kötzting / - / Bayern wohnhaft in München

Deportation: ab München 20. November 1941, Kowno (Kauen), Fort IX

Todesdatum: 25. November 1941 Todesort: Kowno (Kauen), Fort IX

Emma Seliger (Schwager) was born on 12-Jab-1890 in Koetzting to Isidor Schwager and Karla (Fleischer). She received public school and religious instruction in Cham and worked in the family business, particularly during WW1. Emma was a very kind person and a very pretty child and woman with a mass of thick dark hair. Emma married Sigmund Seliger (born 6-May-1879 in Bad Orb) on 25-Jun-1914 in Cham. Sigmund Seliger’s family had a leather business in Cham like Isidor Schwager but smaller. Sigmund served in the German army during WW1 while Emma stayed with her family. After the war they moved to Augsburg. Emma and Sigmund Seliger had two sons: Herbert (born 9-Apr-1915) and Ernst (born 2-Sep-1920). In 1936 they moved to Munich after the death of Emma’s sister Ida. Ida didn’t get married and assisted the parents so they came to replace her. In Munich they took over Ida’s business “Schwager Lederhandlung” (Ida was appointed as business owner after Isidor’s retirement). So they lived in Munich and ran the family business until 1938 when the Nazis took their business. Shortly before Kristal Nacht, Sigmund suffered from a slight stroke. On Kristal Nacht he was taken for several weeks to Dachau Concentration Camp, along with many other Jewish men from Munich. Emma and Sigmund were moved from their home twice and finally they were re-settled in Apr-1941 in Georgenstrasse in Munich. Here they lived in a well heated room in an apartment they shared with the Schnurmanns (Emma’s sister Augusta and her husband Eugene). Several more Jews shared the apartment. They all hoped to emigrate. Despite their efforts and the effort of their sons to help them migrate to Palestine or the US (their waiting number was 55,091), Emma and Sigmund Seliger were deported from Munich on 20-Nov-1941 to the east. Eventually they reached the 9th fortress in Kovna (Kaunas) in Lithuania where they were murdered on 30-Nov-1941 together with other members of the Schwager family. During the occupation period some 50,000 people (mainly Jews) were murdered in this fortress. The bodies were buried nearby. In the autumn 1943, before the arrival of the Russian troops, the Germans initiated operation 1005 to erase all evidence to the crimes so Jews prisoners were instructed to dig the graves and burned the bodies.