Werner Gossels (M / Germany, 1933), Holocaust survivor

Werner Gossels (M / Germany, 1933), Holocaust survivor

Claus Gossels / Peter Gossels (M / Germany, 1930), Holocaust survivor

Biography

Claus Gossels was born in 1930 in Berlin, Germany. His brother Werner was born in 1933. Peter and Werner’s parents had divorced well before 1938 when their mother Charlotte made the heartrending decision to send her two sons to France to escape the violent Nazi-sponsored anti-Semitism that was making it increasingly dangerous for Jews living in Germany.

It took a year for their mother to obtain visas for her sons from the French Embassy in Berlin. On July 3, 1939, only months before the outbreak of World War II, Charlotte saw her 8- and 5-year-old sons off at the train station, thanks to a Jewish organization called the Joint Distribution Committee.

They went first to the Chateau de Quincy and later to the Chateau de Chabannes. In September 1941 they emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Serpa Pinto.

Sources

• SS Serpa Pinto (September 1941) -- confirmed (the name is on the list of passengers)