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Villa Felicia. Today, we will delve into a short history of a villa located in Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój (Bad Warmbrunn). Lately, it’s been haunting me. It all started when I admired its magnificent structure through the window of my temporary apartment, which was located diagonally across the street. A few weeks later, I stumbled upon a photo of the villa in the state archive, wedged between documents from pre-war Wrocław. And when one day I came across a property listing for an apartment in that very building, with information that it used to belong to Dr. Moses, I decided it was time to find out more about this mysterious person.
Advertisement of the villa as a scratchpad among other archival documents / Photo by Marta Maćkowiak
Sigismund Moses was born on August 16, 1863, in Trzebnica (Seebnitz) near Lubin, into a Jewish family, the son of Abraham Moses and Bertha (née Russ). Shortly afterward, the Moses family moved to Jelenia Góra (Hirschberg), while Sigismund eventually settled in Kostomłoty (Kostenblut). It was there that, on March 17, 1889, his first child, a daughter named Katharina, was born. Two months later, Sigismund married Katharina’s mother, Felicia (née Heidenfeld), in Wrocław (Breslau). Felicia was originally from Wrocław, and it is likely that a few years later, they named the Cieplice villa after her. This villa was situated just a few steps away from the spa park.
The Moses family had been residing in Cieplice certainly before 1912, as in that year, on August 6, their daughter Katharina, a resident of Cieplice, married Max Wolff, the bank director from Tarnowskie Góry (Tarnowitz), who was the son of Sigismund and Maria (née Finkler). Max lived in Wrocław, and it was there that the entire family eventually settled. The Wolff family became members of the Nowa Synagoga (New Synagogue), where their son Klaus had his Bar Mitzvah on April 22, 1933.
Information about the upcoming Bar Mitzvah of Klaus Wolff / Breslauer Jewish Community Magazine, Issue 2, February 1933.
Sigismund himself was an extraordinary individual. He was a general practitioner and spa doctor, as well as an author of publications about Jewish sanatorium hospitals (one of them was located in the building at ul. Św. Jadwigi Śląskiej 16 in Cieplice). He was also a member of the Jelenia Góra (Hirschberg) Masonic Lodge, known as the Kynast Loge, whose headquarters were situated on Wilhelmstrasse in Hirschberg (present-day al. Wojska Polskiego 2).
The building that housed the Jelenia Góra Masonic Lodge Kynast Loge zu den Drei Ringen, al. Wojska Polskiego 24, Jelenia Góra / source: Polska-org.pl
The building that served as the headquarters of the Jelenia Góra Masonic Lodge Kynast Loge zu den Drei Ringen, al. Wojska Polskiego 24, Jelenia Góra / photo: Marta Maćkowiak
In 1927, Dr. Moses still resided in Cieplice at Hermsdorferstrasse 5 (today’s Cieplicka Street), precisely where Villa Felicia was located. From around 1930, he permanently moved to Wrocław. At that time, he lived at Furstenstrasse 64 (present-day Grunwaldzka Street), and six years later, he relocated to Hohenzollernstrasse 58 (today’s Sudecka Street).
Excerpt from the 1927 address book of Cieplice Zdrój (Bad Warmbrunn).
Excerpt from the 1936 address book of Wrocław (Breslau).
Photographs of Katharina Wolff, née Moses, and Max Wolff / Source: Yad VaShem
Medical certificate of Max Wolff’s death in the Buchenwald concentration camp
Death certificate of Max Wolff / Source: Stadtarchiv Weimar
On August 19, 1941, Sigismund passed away, resting beside his beloved wife at the new Jewish cemetery in Wrocław, located on Lotnicza Street.
At this moment, Katharina was left entirely alone. Her daughter managed to escape to Palestine, and her son to the United Kingdom. On March 2, 1942, she was forced to leave her apartment on the prestigious first floor and rent a 35-square-meter room in a flat at Gartenstrasse 90 (nowadays Piłsudskiego Street in Wrocław). She lived there for only a year because on March 12, 1943, she was deported to a concentration camp.
A snippet from documents in the file related to the confiscation of Jewish property in Wrocław. Information about Katharina’s children.
A snippet from documents in the file related to the confiscation of Jewish property in Wrocław. Information about the rented room.
Sources:
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