Betty Wallach was born in Geseke near Paderborn on August 14, 1877, the daughter of Heinemann and Julie Wallach. She grew up with nine siblings. Her first marriage was to Bernhard Rothstein; the couple had two daughters, Anna and Marie Luise. After her husband’s death, she became the owner of the jeweller’s shop J. Bernhard Rothstein at Sendlinger Straße 21 in 1919. On April 20, 1921 she married Hugo Epstein. He was born on November 23, 1872 in Breslau and had fought in the First World War from 1916 to 1918. The Jewish family lived at Westermühlstraße 7.
From 1933 on, Betty Epstein experienced exclusion, persecution and expropriation. Her jeweller’s shop had to be deregistered in 1938. Her husband Hugo was interned in Dachau concentration camp from November 10 to December 28, 1938 in the course of the “Kristallnacht” pogroms. After being forced out of their home in Dachau, Betty Epstein’s brother Max Wallach and his wife Melitta lived for a short time with Betty Epstein and her husband. The Epsteins tried in vain to emigrate to the USA via England. In September 1940, Betty and Hugo Epstein had to leave their home and move to Germaniastraße 36. On February 16, 1942 the Gestapo (Secret Police) placed them in the camp for Jews in Milbertshofen. Hugo Epstein died there on May 20, 1942. Betty Epstein was deported to Theresienstadt ghetto on July 15, 1942. On October 13, 1942 she died of the catastrophic conditions there.
Betty Epstein’s daughters Anna and Marie Luise Rothstein were able to emigrate in time and survived the Shoah. Five of her siblings also managed to emigrate, escaping to the USA, South Africa and Argentina. Betty Epstein’s sister Grete survived, protected by her marriage to a non-Jew in Bielefeld. Her three brothers Max, Hugo and Adolf were murdered by the Nazis. (Text Barbara Hutzelmann; editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)
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