My grandmother, Selma Barth, came from Flehingen, a farming village in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany.

She was the youngest of 6 sisters, all with extended families in their husbands’ surnames: Dreyfuss, Ackermann, Heidelberger, Maier, Heumann & Weisburger.

Erna Ackermann, Selma’s niece, was born & raised in Flehingen and is the source for much of this story.

According to Erna, the Barth family lived in Flehingen at least as far back as the early 1600’s when records were destroyed during the 30 Years War.

My grandfather, Willy Weisburger, came from Bad Wimpfen, a spa town known for its brine baths on the Neckar River, also in Baden-Württemberg. (Footnote 1)

When my uncle John was a boy, Willy brought him to the cemetery in Wissembourg where Weissburgers back to the 1600’s were buried.

Wissembourg is about 50 miles west of Flehingen in Alsace and was part of France since the early 1700’s.

It was part of Germany before then, and also between 1871 & 1918, and again between 1940 & 1945.

The first Jews in Germany arrived with the Roman occupiers during the 1st to 4th centuries.

By the 10th century, there were Jewish communities in the old Roman settlements along the Rhine, including Worms & Speyer, north & south of the mouth of the Neckar.

It’s possible that our ancestors were among these early immigrants who never left the region.

Persecution, starting with the 1st Crusade around 1100, drove other Jews out of the region to France, northern Germany, Poland, Lithuania & Russia.

The Jewish population that originated in southwest Germany and spread to northern & eastern Europe is known as the Ashkenazis.