Anna Channa Ziering was born on 20.4.1907 in Kalusz (Galicia). Her parents were Tzvi Khaim Ziering and Rivka Nussbaum. The Zierings were from Kalusz (German: Kalusch), a Ukrainian town at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. Kalusz belonged to Austria-Hungary before World War I, was destroyed, and fell to Poland after the Soviet-Polish War (1921-23).

Anna had four older brothers: Joseph (*1.4.1888), Isaak (*23.11.1895), Leo Leib (*3.12.1900) and Benjamin Benno (*10.3.1903). When the brothers emigrated to Germany in 1920, the then 13-year-old girl remained with her parents in Kalusz. When her father died in 1929, she and her mother Rivka Nussbaum moved in with her brothers in Kassel. There she married the merchant Abraham Kott on December 3, 1929.

Abraham Kott was born on April 11, 1899 in Sulejow/Pietrkow, Poland. He was a baker and traded in old goods and objects of daily use. He run a small store at Mittelgasse 66 (1925) and at Jägergasse 5 (1929), at Mauerstraße 6 (1931, at Pferdemarkt 58 (1933), at Mittelgasse 53 (1934 - 1936) and from 1937 probably also from his flat at Jägerstraße 5.

The Kotts also lived there in a 3-room flat since March 15, 1934. Since 1934, Anna's mother Rifka, who had initially lodged with brother Leo at Jägerstraße 7, also lived with them .

In the „Kristallnacht“  of 1938, Abraham Kott's store was destroyed and looted. In May 1939, the stateless couple was transported to the Polish border and was to be deported. ( .......) A few weeks later, at the beginning of July 1939, Abraham applied to the Gestapo for a certificate of good conduct for himself and his wife for the purpose of leaving the country for the USA. But this did not happen. Instead, Abraham emigrated to England alone on September 1, 1939.

Anna Kott stayed behind alone and continued to live at Jägerstraße 5. She certainly still had contact with her brother Leo, who lived in the house next door. She certainly registered that Leo fled and her sister-in-law Zilla with her little daughter Jutti were deported in December 1941.