The Jewish business manager and merchant Otto Lenneberg originally came from Düsseldorf. In 1925, he married Dortmund-born Franziska Karoline Schneider, a professional buyer. The couple initially lived in Gelsenkirchen-Buer. Their daughter Ursula was born the following year in Dortmund. The family returned to Dortmund in 1927. They then moved in 1928 to Aplerbeck, where they lived for the next eight years, before relocating to Düsseldorf. In 1930, they had a son, Walter.

Although Franziska Lenneberg was Protestant and the family therefore had a more secure status under the Nazi regime than families where both parents were Jewish, Ursula and Walter were deported together with their father. The parents had decided to bring up their children in the Jewish faith; consequently, the criterion for a “privileged mixed marriage” no longer applied, so all protection was lost.

The deportation from Düsseldorf to Theresienstadt took place in 1942, with the mother remaining behind in Düsseldorf. Two years later, Otto and Walter were taken to Auschwitz, where they were most likely murdered immediately. Ursula was also deported to Auschwitz soon afterwards, but survived, and after her liberation emigrated with her mother to the USA.