Besteht eine familiäre Verbindung zwischen Abraham Edelstein (1925/1927: Esch/Alzette) und Wolf 'Walter' Edelstein (1932 - 194x Luxemburg) ?
Wenn ja, ist Abraham Edelstein vielleicht ein (der) Grund dafür, dass Walter Edelstein und sein Sohn Kurt Anfang 1932 nach Luxemburg kamen?

Is there a family connection between Abraham Edelstein (1925/1927: Esch/Alzette) and Wolf ‘Walter’ Edelstein (1932 - 194x Luxembourg)?
If yes, is  Abraham Edelstein perhaps a (the) reason why Walter Edelstein and his son Kurt came to Luxembourg in 1932?

Modes Jenny Grünstein, Luxembourg, W. & C. Edelstein - Hutkiste (Collection: industrie.lu)

(Beffort - Bandermann, Jenny Grünstein, successeurs W. & C. Edelstein, maison de blanc, coin rues du Curé et du Marché-aux-Herbes)

• Walter Edelstein, Luxemburg, Freiheitsavenue 74
• Curt Edelstein, Luxemburg, Gerichtshofstraße 2

Wolf 'Walter' Edelstein (* 17.7.1867 Schacki (Schaki / Schaken) / Ostpreussen (Šakia, polnisch Szaki), + 8.1952 New York / USA) married Bertha Basche Stern (* 18.10.1864 Brödzen / Ostpreussen) in Berlin in 1890.

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  Charlotte Sarah Edelstein (* 17.12.1891 Berlin, + KZ Auschwitz) - Wilhelm 'Willy' Meyer (1910: mariage - Heirat in Danzig). Willy Meyer was killed fighting in France in October 1914.
  
  
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  Kurt - Curt Edelstein (* 22.5.1894 Berlin, + Auschwitz) - Adele 'Edith' Labischin (7.7.1898 Berlin, + KZ Auschwitz). Kurt returned to Berlin and married
  
  
  • 
    Inge Edelstein (* 15.3.1922 Eberfeld, + KZ Auschwitz)
    
    
  • 
    Gert Edelstein (* 2.7.1923 Berlin, + KZ Dachau)
    
    
• Martha Edelstein - Hermann Jacks (1921: mariage - Heirat in Danzig). The couple moved to Stettin/Sczeczin
  • Marion Jacks (* 1922)
  • Heinz Jacks (* 1931)

When Walter Edelstein opened his first department store, Warenhaus Walter Edelstein, in Danzig (as it was then) in 1903, the family moved to the city from Hamburg, where they had lived after moving from Berlin. There were eventually three branches of the store in and around the city, but unfortunately the company got into financial difficulties and ceased to exist in 1915.



In 1925, Kurt Edelstein and his family moved to Frankfurt am Main. Walter, Bertha and Charlotte joined them three years later. Then Kurt took a job/promotion at a department store in Mannheim in 1929, and relocated there with Edith and the children. In February 1932, all the Edelstein family in Frankfurt and Mannheim migrated to Luxembourg City, but the reasons are currently unclear; it could have been this new business opportunity, the increasingly unstable political situation in Germany, the rise of antisemitism, or perhaps all three. Martha and her family joined them in October 1933 as the Nazis were making business impossible for her husband. 

After the Germans invaded Luxembourg, Walter and Kurt were stripped of the shop they had taken over from Jenny Grünstein. Martha, Hermann and their children somehow managed to acquire visas to South America, and eventually settled in New York. The rest of the family, however, were forcibly relocated to the Fünfbrunnen/Cinqfontaines transit camp in October 1941. The Edelsteins were involved with the running of the camp; aged only 18, for example, Gert managed the kitchen, having completed a cook's apprenticeship in the late 1930s. Then, on 28 July 1942, they were all deported to Theresienstadt. Bertha died there about two months later. Between May-October 1944, Charlotte, Kurt, Edith, Inge and Gert were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The older generation all appear to have been murdered upon arrival. Inge was sent to Stutthof, where she died in October 1944. Gert was transferred to a subcamp of Dachau and died there in April 1945, shortly before liberation.

Because of his age, Walter Edelstein wasn't sent away from Theresienstadt and, remarkably, lived to see liberation in May 1945. After a brief spell in a Displaced Persons camp, he returned to Luxembourg, where he acquired a passport so he could travel to America and be reunited with Martha. He died in New York in August 1952.

(Info: 8.2025: Imogen Dalziel) (Photos: ANLux J-108-045367; ANLux -108-0374168)