Foss Zamuel Isaakovich (1896)

Foss Zamuel (Samuel) Isaakovich (11 March 1896, Aizpute) - shoeshiner and casual worker.

Zamuel Foss was born into a very poor family with eight children. After completing four classes of primary school, in 1911 his family moved to Liepaja, where he began working as an apprentice salesman in the textile shop of the Sonnenstrahl brothers, remaining there until 1919.

From 1919 to 1920 he served in the Latvian Army. After demobilization he moved in 1920 to Dresden, Germany, joining his brother Daniēls Foss (1895–1922), who had settled there earlier. In 1924 he relocated to Teplice-Šanov in Czechoslovakia, where he worked as a percussion musician. In 1929, from a relationship with a Czech resident, Erna Kube, a daughter, Manya Gercikova (née Foss), was born. He returned to Liepāja in 1936; his first marriage was dissolved in 1938.

At the end of June 1941 he was evacuated to Dushanbe. In July 1942 he was mobilized into the Red Army but was demobilized later that year due to illness. He worked as an orderly and in December 1944 returned to Latvia, settling in Riga. Until 1960 he worked as a craftsman and shoeshiner.

In 1941 he married Taube Foss (née Tsvik) (1915); the couple had no children. From 1946 he was registered at a neuropsychiatric dispensary due to an organic brain illness.

His sisters Roza Gedalina (née Foss) (1889–1941), Meri Kalman (née Foss) (1898–1941), and Tsilya Shumyatser (née Foss) (1907–1941), as well as his brother Ura Foss (1892–1941), were murdered in Liepāja in 1941. His brother Gessel Foss (1905–1941) was killed in action near Leningrad. Another brother, Benno Foss (born 1902), emigrated to the United States, and his cousin Iosef Geler had been living in Israel since 1945.

Family:

Taube Foss (née Tsvik) (1915) – wife
Manya Gercikova (née Foss) (1929) – daughter
Isaak Foss (1864–1941) – father
Mina Foss (1874–1922) – mother
Vulf Foss (1890–1942) – brother
Ura Foss (1892–1941) – brother
Daniēls Foss (1895–1922) – brother
Benno Foss (1902) – brother
Gessel Foss (1905–1941) – brother
Roza Gedalina (née Foss) (1889–1941) – sister
Meri Kalman (née Foss) (1898–1941) – sister
Tsilya Shumyatser (née Foss) (1907–1941) – sister