Wachsmann, Jakob & Aura

  Children:  Leo, Abel

  Grandchildren:  Ernesto, Karen, Sarah, David, Michelle, Alex, Rebecca

Family Story:

Leo Wachsmann, who originally was from Lodz, Poland, was a well-known wood sculptor. He used to make all sorts of woodworks for the community’s synagogue, and even for Christian churches. Eventually, Leo made wooden musical instruments like the violin too. When Leo  decided to move to Germany his original last name “Waksman” was changed to Wachsmann. He passed away in Germany before the rise of Hitler. Leo met Frieda Kauffmann in Wawern, a small town in the southwest of Germany. They got married and had three children: Jakob, Ella and Lutbert. Like so many other Jewish families at the end of the 1930s, the Wachsmann- Kaufmann family decided to leave Germany. At the time Jakob, the oldest, was already 17. They were part of a group of 45 people named “The Luxembourg group” who arrived in Sosúa at the beginning of the 1940s. Many other settlers who stayed in Sosúa until they passed were among them like: the Koch, Kirchheimer, and Papernik families, as well as Josef Eichen.

In 1945 Jakob married Aura Fernandez del Rosario, a young Dominican lady from San Francisco de Macorís. From that union were born Leo Wachsmann  and Abel Wachsmann.

Jakob and his brother Lutbert worked at their farms located in La Mulata for many years. Due to his extensive knowledge of meat processing, Jakob became the manager of La Ganadera for about 30 years.

By 1948, Frieda Wachsmann and her daughter Ella had emigrated to the United States of America. Frieda died in Erie, Pennsylvania in the late 1970s. Ella had married Heinz Spangenthal, who was originally from Eisenach, Germany.

When Jakob retired from La Ganadera, he moved to Santiago in the late 1980s where he passed away in 2006.

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