Posted on April 14, 2009
Friedel (Fred) Ransenberg was born in Wenneman, Germany, the second oldest of six children. His father, Jakob Ransenberg, an Iron Cross recipient and decorated sergeant in the German Army during World War I, supported his family as a butcher. Before the drastic rise of anti-Semitism, Ransenberg and his brothers played soccer on the local team alongside many Catholic Germans. Fred’s older brother was sent away on the Kindertransport. In 1943, at the age of 16, Fred arrived in Auschwitz.