Gustav Elsbach lived with his wife Helene at Hermannstrasse 30 in the flat above the “Phoenix” drugstore, which he owned and ran. Their son Walter Elsbach (born 31.12.1913) worked as a tailor and lived until 1941 on Westenhellweg.

In the “Pogrom night” of 1938, the drugstore, flat and storerooms were ransacked, and the stock and furnishings were destroyed and thrown out onto the street. The drugstore was closed on 31 December 1938 and subsequently sold. Together with his wife, Julius Elsbach moved to Cologne, where they lived at Rurstrasse 14.

On 22 October 1941, Julius and Helene Elsbach were deported from Cologne to the ghetto in Lodz/Litzmannstadt, where their address in the ghetto was “Talweg 32”. In July 1944, they were deported from the ghetto to Chełmno/Kulmhof extermination camp, where they were murdered. Helene died on 10 July 1944; Gustav’s official date of death is given as 8 May 1945.