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Child Emigration from Frankfurt

An Exhibition of the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 of the German National Library

German Exile Archive of the German National Library, 1933-1945

Introduction

You'll only be alone for a little while, everything will be OK - this was the hope with which the parents sent their children on the so-called Kindertransporte (children's transports). Between November 1938 and the beginning of World War II in September 1939, the Kindertransporte enabled around 20,000 children and adolescents to escape the Nazi regime. At least 600 of these children came from Frankfurt. 

Yet the separation was not just for a little while. Neither did everything return to normal. The children's escape saved them from persecution but also meant a bewildering separation from their families, trauma and feelings of guilt. On arrival in their host countries, the children were often put under immense pressure to adjust; some of them did not live in conditions suitable for children. Back home, they left behind a feeling of emptiness - in their families, in their classes at school, in public life. Most of the children never saw their parents, siblings, or relatives again. Their childhood experiences marked them for life and also affected them later on when they started their own families. 

Children had emigrated from Nazi-Germany before 1938; however, this did not take place on such a large scale since hardly any families were willing to submit to such a painful separation. Moreover, other countries did not show themselves particularly willing to take the children in. However, the November pogroms of 1938 and the disenfranchisement of Austrian Jews that began immediately after the annexation of Austria left no doubt that as many children and adolescents as possible had to be removed from the regime imposed by the Nazi dictatorship. This was only possible through the cooperation of a large number of organisations, initiatives, authorities and individuals. But not all children had the same opportunities: Young girls were easier to place, boys aged twelve and upwards much more difficult. Siblings were only permitted to stay together in exceptional cases, and it could not be guaranteed that Jewish children would be accepted into Jewish foster families. Children with disabilities had hardly any chance of being placed. 

The term Kindertransporte is usually associated with the emigration of children and adolescents to the United Kingdom between December 1938 and September 1939. However, other countries also declared themselves willing to act as hosts: the children and adolescents fled for example to Belgium, France, Palestine, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States. 

The exhibition ,"Child Emigration from Frankfurt" shows that every story of child emigration is individual and unique. It focuses on six life stories which could hardly have been more different. It also directs attention to local conditions in Frankfurt, the situation in the host countries, the bureaucracy involved and the people who helped the children emigrate. the question that frames the exhibition is how we can remember child emigration today. 



"It would be wonderful if there was a memorial to the Kindertransport children in my home town. […] I personally wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for the Kindertransport. […] And I would like to ask you to hurry up, because I'm now 93 years old."

Comtemporary witness Lee Edwards on a memorial for the Kindertransporte in Frankfurt, 2017



A Memorial for the Kindertransports in Frankfurt

Lee Edwards' wish from 2017 has now been granted. At the request of former Kindertransport children, the organisation Projekt Jüdisches Leben in Frankfurt am Main (Project Jewish Life in Frankfurt am Main) and the local council of administrative district 1, the City of Frankfurt am Main decided to erect a memorial commemorating the emigration of the children and adolescents. The patron of the project is television presenter and talkshow host Bärbel Schäfer, who lives in Frankfurt. Five artists were invited to compete for the commission: Yael Bartana, Anne Imhof, Ella Littwitz, Michaela Melián and Ernst Stark. The jury decided on Yael Bartana's design. 

From September 2021, The Orphan Carousel, as the memorial designed by Bartana is known, will stand on the corner of Kaiser-straße/Gallusanlage as a reminder of the children who emigrated from Frankfurt. The memorial focuses on the moment of farewell and the aspect of absence. In her explanatory notes, Yael Bartana outlines the questions that inspired her design: What was left to the parents after their children had departed? How did the parents cope with their children's absence? Did they visit the playgrounds where they could still envision their children's laughter?





Memorial Design by Yael Bartana

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Yael Bartana

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Memorial Design by Yael Bartana

© Yael Bartana

Yael Bartana was born in Afula, Israel in 1970 and today lives in Berlin and Amsterdam. She studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, The School of Visual Arts, New York, and the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. Bartana is a keen observer of the contemporary who uses art as a scalpel to dissect power structures and their underlying mechanisms. For some twenty years, she has been exploring the dark dreams of the collective unconscious. In her films, installations, photographs, scenic performances, and public monuments, she investigates themes such as national identity, trauma and displacement.

Bartana’s works are represented in international museum collections, among them the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Tate Modern, London, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. She has had solo exhibitions at the Fondazione Modena Arti Visive (2019/2020), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2018), the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2015), the Vienna Secession (2012), the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2012), and elsewhere, and taken part in group exhibitions and biennials such as the Bienal de São Paulo (2014), the 7th Berlin Biennale (2012), and the documenta 12 (2007). In 2011 she represented Poland at the Biennale di Venezia. In 2021 the Jewish Museum Berlin will present a major survey of her work. In 2010 she was awarded the Artes Mundi prize. Her film trilogy And Europe Will Be Stunned  holds ninth place on the British newspaper The Guardian’s ‘Best Art of the 21st Century’ list.

www.yaelbartana.com

The Orphan Carousel serves as a reminder of the void left behind after the hopeful – and painful – departure of Jewish children from the National Socialist dictatorship for safety abroad. The memorial is modelled after an old-fashioned wooden roundabout of the kind still found in children’s playgrounds today. It is functional as a roundabout but very difficult to set in motion. Three sentences are engraved in its sides: words of farewell expressing the joyful anticipation of reunion, which in most cases never came about. The memorial commemorates the children who were separated from their families in 1938/39, while also calling to mind the many children and adolescents forced to leave their families behind in war-ridden countries today.



Memorial Design by Anne Imhof

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Anne Imhof

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Memorial Design by Anne Imhof

© Anne Imhof

Anne Imhof was born in Giessen in 1978 and today lives and works in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main. A graduate of the Städel School in Frankfurt, she works in the mediums of drawing, painting, installation, and performance and repeatedly also ventures beyond the boundaries of the museum space. The political dimension of her art consistently touches on questions of power structures and the freedom of the individual within our society.

Imhof has had solo exhibitions at the Tate Modern, London (2019), the Art Institute of Chicago (2019), the 57th Biennale di Venezia (2017), the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2016), the Kunsthalle Basel (2016), the MoMA PS1, New York (2015), the Carré d’Art – Musée d’Art Contemporain de Nîmes (2014), and the Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (2013). Her works have also been featured in numerous group exhibitions, for example at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2019) and Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (2019). In 2015 she was awarded the Prize of the Nationalgalerie. In 2017, she received the Golden Lion of the Biennale di Venezia for her work Faust for the German Pavilion.
www.galeriebuchholz.de

Imhof’s design for the Kindertransport memorial is almost architectural in character and meant to occupy the urban space in a new way. It envisages an abstract simulation of a railway station platform: a track bed lowered into the ground and flanked by two panes of glass. Viewers walk through this glazed space and see their mirror images in the panes of glass. These reflections open new perspectives – not least of all for thinking about one’s own position in relation to the historical events. With its minimalist aesthetic, the memorial takes on a virtually ephemeral quality. The information text specified by the city is etched in one of the two panes, above it the work’s simple title untitled (children).



Memorial Design by Ella Littwitz

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Ella Littwitz

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Memorial Design by Ella Littwitz

© Ella Littwitz

The visual artist Ella Littwitz was born in Haifa, Israel in 1982 and today lives in Jaffa, Israel. She graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem in 2009 and is a laureate of the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Ghent (HISK; 2014 – 2015). Her art often takes the form of large environments and installations. Her native Israel is a frequent point of reference for her works, which as a rule are preceded by extensive artistic research. Littwitz’s chief focusses are the critical examination of national and political identity and the construction of historical and psychological boundaries.

Littwitz has had solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen (2019), the La Panera Art Center, Lleida (2018), the MWW Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław (2017), the Petach Tikva Museum (2017), and the Salzburger Kunstverein (2016). Her works have moreover been featured in numerous group exhibitions and biennials, for example at the Ticho House Jerusalem (2019), the Tallinn Kunsthal (2015), the Special Programme of the 6th Moscow Biennale (2015), and the Istanbul Biennial (2011). She has received numerous distinctions, including awards from the Dr. Georg und Josi Guggenheim-Stiftung and The Botín Foundation and a working grant from the Stiftung Kunstfonds.
www.ellalittwitz.com

A message on a postcard Lore Jacobs, née Gotthelf received from her father on 7 July 1939 – shortly before she left Germany on a Kindertransport – served Ella Littwitz as a source of inspiration for her proposal. ‘Today is the tomorrow you were so afraid of yesterday – and all is well!’ The design is based on a scientific conceptualisation of space and time with relation to a specific historical event. Alluding to the light cone of the theory of relativity, it calls for two polished basalt sculptures set into the pavement on opposite sides of the world and thus connecting the two hemispheres: one at the site of the memorial in Frankfurt and the other on the Chatham Islands in New Zealand.

The dual cone structure represents an event that links the past, present, and future as a causal sequence. In its double function as a diagram and a memorial, the work creates an additional dimension bearing a reference to our perception of reality. Littwitz’s design is an endeavour to capture the two contrary states of mind of the parents who decided to send their children out into the unknown – on the one hand their deep despair and total surrender to reality as perceived in the then present, on the other hand hope of survival and continuity in a better future.



Memorial Design by Michaela Melián

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Michaela Melián

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Memorial Design by Michaela Melián

© Michaela Melián

Michaela Melián was born in 1956 and lives in Munich and Hamburg. She studied art and music in Munich and London and has held a professorship in time-referenced media at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts (HFBK) since 2010. Melián combines objects, photographs, films, music, and texts to create cross-genre installations and audio-visual projects with which she poses questions about the historicity of places as well as about memory and language and their reciprocal relationship in the sociopolitical and contemporary historical context. National Socialism in Germany and its consequences have accordingly been the focus of her critical reflections on more than one occasion.

Melián’s works have been on view in numerous international exhibitions, most recently, for example, at the Gwangju Museum of Art, South Korea (2020), the Kunsthal Rotterdam (2020), the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism (2019), the Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2019), the Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona (2019), the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (2019), the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2019), the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (2016), and the Kunsthalle Mannheim (2015). In 2010, on commission from the City of Munich, she realized Memory Loops, an acoustic memorial to the victims of National Socialism. She received the Grimme Online Award for Memory Loops, which was also selected as Audio Artwork of the Year 2010 by the Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste. For her work Föhrenwald, Melián received the Radio Play Award of the War Blind. She has also received numerous other distinctions, including the Bremen Roland Prize for Art in the Public Space (2018), the Edwin Scharff Art Prize of the City of Hamburg (2018), and the Art Prize of the City of Munich (2010).
www.michaelamelian.net

Melián proposed an active form of remembrance. The design of the two-part work calls for a twelve-pointed star made of blue-dyed concrete embedded permanently in the ground. Reminiscent of both a double Star of David and a compass dial, this star is to be used once a year as a stage for a performance by a children’s choir of Frankfurt. Every year, a different music student has been commissioned by the City of Frankfurt to compose the choral piece sung on the occasion. The point of departure for the composition is the work Passacaglia by Siegfried Würzburger, the organist at Frankfurt’s Westend Synagogue from 1911 to 1938. Würzburger’s son Karl Robert departed for England on a Kindertransport on 24 August 1939.



Memorial Design by Ernst Stark

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Ernst Stark

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Memorial Design by Ernst Stark

© Ernst Stark

The sculptor Ernst Stark was born in Bamberg in 1965 and today lives in Paris and Frankfurt am Main. He works primarily with various types of wood, which he processes with tools ranging from the chain saw to the Japanese knife. The artist feels his way to the objects in dialogue with his material: unhewn tree trunks. Often figurative and polychrome, his sculptures are modelled after photographs or from memory. Whether realized on a monumental scale or en miniature, they are bursting with energy and temperament. Stark is interested in the objects of everyday life; the spectacular is foreign to him. The transitory – as manifested in memories and photographic models – attains permanence and comes to a halt through his interventions.

Over the course of his nearly thirty years of working as an artist, Stark has received important grants and distinctions and taken part in international exhibitions at venues such as the Oberfinanzdirektion Frankfurt (2018), the Galerie widmertheodoridis, Zurich (2017), the Goldstein Galerie Frankfurt (2016), the Primo Piano exhibition space, Paris (2014), Lothringer 13, Munich (2014), the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck (2009), and the 9th Fellbach Triennial of Small-Scale Sculpture (2004).
www.ernststark.de

Stark’s design proposes a sculpture that viewers can climb onto and ‘use’. It consists of three chairs – one large and two child-size – set up on a platform made of solid bronze and thus serving as a socle. And because the platform’s surface bears a text on the history of the Kindertransport, it also fulfills the function of a large information plaque. The chairs have eyes. One of them stands apart from the others and looks in the direction of the railway station. On its seat is a card with a number on it. Cards of this kind were in fact hung around the children’s necks for the transport. The other two chairs stand side by side with their backs to the first and look towards the city centre. It is as if the three chairs are acting out a scene in a play in which the child leaves the protective intimacy of the family behind forever. The scene seems unambiguous but is nevertheless open to interpretation, and thus takes on a quality both real and irreal in the eyes of the beholder. The chairs are hewn in all detail from a tree trunk and then cast in bronze. As a result, the structure of the wood remains visible and lends the memorial a strong haptic quality and atmospheric density while at the same time pointing to the significance of the tree as a symbol of life in Judaism.



Burning Synagoge at Börneplatz on 9 November 1938

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Institute for the History of Frankfurt

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Institute for the History of Frankfurt , ISG_S7FR-9416

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Emigration from Frankfurt during National Socialism

Photo: Institute for the History of Frankfurt, ISG_S7FR-9416

Until 1933, Frankfurt am Main was the German city with the largest Jewish population. Jewish citizens had helped shape the city and contributed to its scientific, economic, cultural and social development. Synagogues, Jewish schools and training institutions, adult education facilities, welfare services and thriving Jewish communities could be found everywhere in the city. 

Following the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1933, the Jews were systematically ostracised and disenfranchised. After the November Pogroms of 1938, Frankfurt's Jewish citizens were arrested and imprisoned; more than 3,000 of them were deported to the concentration camps in Buchenwald and Dachau. Anti-Semitism was so rife in the surrounding region that the influx of Jews into Frankfurt am Main, which had begun in 1933, increased rapidly, and many parents asked for their children to be housed in Frankfurt's Jewish orphanages. Many families also tried to flee abroad. Some 7,000 citizens of Frankfurt emigrated from November 1938 until the ban on emigration was imposed in October 1941. 



Bureaucracy Diagram for Kindertransports

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German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library

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German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library, SPACE4

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Bureaucracy

The emigration of the children and adolescents also involved numerous bureaucratic obstacles. Countless requirements had to be met before the children could leave Frankfurt. Some families started by making their own searches for foster parents, if necessary by travelling abroad to gather information. 

Every child had to be registered, a process which involved filling out a number of standard questionnaires. The completed questionnaires had to be submitted to the Quakers, the Christian denominational aid organisations or the Jewish welfare organisation Jüdische Wohlfahrtspflege, from where they were forwarded to the Kinderauswanderung (Children's Emigration) department of the Reichsvertretung der Juden (Reich Representation of German Jews). 

The organisations then used the questionnaires to draw up lists of proposals for the Kindertransporte. Over time, the criteria shifted, due not least to the fact that the host countries insisted on the fulfillment of specific requirements. For the most part, it was not possible to send children who were most at risk; instead, preference was given to those who conformed most closely with the country's criteria. Healthy younger girls, particularly girls who did not have to be taken in by hosts of a specific religious confession, were easiest to place. If no foster parents could be found, a search for financial guarantors had to be made. 

Certificates of each child's health and personal suitability had to be presented, since sick or socially aberrant children had no chance of being accepted. 

Passport photos, children's passports and exit visas had to be organised; the visas could only be issued after an entry permit had been received. 

Last but not least, detailed lists of hold and hand luggage had to be drawn up and approved by the foreign exchange offices. Once all documents were ready and the child or adolescent had been accepted for emigration to a host country, the parents were notified of the transport on which their child was to leave Germany. 

The accompanying graphic shows a simplified representation of this complicated bureaucratic process. 



Ravenstein city map of Frankfurt am Main and Offenbach, 1943

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Institute for the History of Frankfurt

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Institute for the History of Frankfurt

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Helpers and Aid Organisations

Auswandererberatungsstelle (Emigration advice centre)

Address: Quinckestr. 24 (today Königswarterstr.)

The emigration advice centre, located in the House of Jewish Welfare in Königswarterstrasse (which was called Quinckestrasse during the National Socialist era), was an institution of the Benefit Society of Jews in Frankfurt. In organisational terms, it was closely linked to the head office in Berlin. The work of the emigration advice centre consisted of counselling as well as financial and organisational assistance. From 1936-1938, the office was headed by the lawyer Dr. Max Hermann Maier. Until 1936, the office tried to facilitate a planned and organised emigration (prepared, for example, by retraining); from about 1936 onwards, the focus was on providing assistance to as many Jewish people as possible as quickly as possible. Max Hermann Maier fled Germany in November 1938.

Bergit Braach, later Bergit Forchhammer

Bergit Braach, born on 12 April 1921 in Duisburg, died on 13 December 2011 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Address: Hochstraße 8

Route: 1939 Great Britain, 1945 Germany, mid/late 1940s Denmark

Bergit Forchhammer, née Braach, is considered a "Mischling of the second degree" under National Socialist laws because she has a Jewish grandfather in the family. In Frankfurt she attends the Viktoriaschule (today Bettinaschule), which she leaves in 1937 due to anti-Semitic harassment. From January 1939 she works as a secretary to Dr. Rudolf Schlosser, the head of the Quaker office in Frankfurt. There, she deals in particular with applications for emigration and support for persecuted Frankfurt citizens. In mid-August 1939, Bergit Braach flees to London under the pretext of spending her summer holidays with friends. There she works in the Quaker "Germany Emergency Committee". After the war, she enlists as an interpreter in the US Army and returns temporarily to Frankfurt in 1945 before moving to Denmark.

B’nai B’rith

Address: Eschersheimer Landstr. 25-27

The "Frankfurt Lodge" was a branch of the "B'nai B'rith" Lodge founded in 1888, which was dedicated to the cultivation of Jewish culture and the defence against anti-Semitism. This social institution, to which prominent Frankfurt Jewish citizens were affiliated, maintained close contacts with English and American sister lodges. In Frankfurt, it used further spaces in addition to the premises in Eschersheimer Landstraße. In the following years, several branches developed, some of which took on Jewish refugees in the course of Nazi persecution. The Frankfurt branches were banned in 1938. In 1961 the Lodge was refounded.

Büro Grüber (Grüber Office), Frankfurt Branch

Address: Cronstettenstr. 50 (until February 1939), Hans-Handwerk-Str. 16 (today: Lange Straße).

The "Büro Grüber", led by Pastor Heinrich Grüber, was based in Berlin, but maintained a network of up to 22 counselling centres throughout Germany via confidants. The Grüber office primarily supported Christians of Jewish origin in emigrating. The confidant in Frankfurt was Pastor Arnold Schumacher, an clergyman of the Inner Mission. Schumacher also worked with the Quaker office in Hochstraße. Until February 1939, the Grüber office was based in Schumacher's private flat before moving into an office in what is now Lange Straße. In December 1940, the office was closed by the Gestapo.

Elisabeth Mann

Elisabeth Mann, born in 1880 - died on 6 January 1963 in Frankfurt am Main.

Address: Arnsteinerstr. 8

Elisabeth Mann is a reform pedagogue and headmistress of the Sophienschule (now Max Beckmann School) in Frankfurt-Bockenheim from 1929 until 1933. As Elisabeth Mann does not want to support Nazi politics, she takes early retirement in 1934 at the age of 55 and joins the Quakers in 1938. She conducted correspondence with the English Quakers and accompanied Frankfurt children's transports to Great Britain. Her close ties with Else Wüst, Martha Türk and her friendship with the Schlosser couple are beneficial to her rescue work. After the end of the war, she became involved in the Quaker feeding programme for the starving children of Frankfurt. Elisabeth Mann lived in Else Wüst's house in Haingründau in the Wetterau from 1944 until her death.

Else Wüst

Else Wüst, born on 25 May 1892 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 18 January 1974 in Gelnhausen

Address: Hochstr. 8

Else Wüst is a trained nurse and social worker and from 1928, the first woman in the Frankfurt criminal police. She is a member of the SPD and is dismissed by the National Socialists in 1933. She trained as a curative masseuse and in 1938 opened a curative massage practice at Hochstraße 8, where the Quaker office was located. She also lives there. She herself has been a Quaker since 1935. Else Wüst supports rescue operations for persecuted Jews, distributes writings against National Socialism and accompanies children on Kindertransports to England. She hides two Jewish families in her house in Hochstraße. She is observed and interrogated by the Gestapo. After the house in Hochstraße was bombed, she survived the war in the Wetterau and was reinstated in the police force in 1945.

Jüdische Wohlfahrtspflege (Jewish Welfare Association)

Address: Quinckestr. 26 (heute: Königswarterstr.)

Around 1900, numerous Jewish associations and foundations took care of the needy, including Jewish children in orphanages. After the First World War, they joined together to form the Jewish Welfare Association. The headquarters of the Jewish Welfare Service was initially located in Lange Straße, later in Quinckestraße/Königswarterstraße. A special task was also youth welfare, which is why the Jewish Welfare Association also played an important role in the Kindertransporte. In the course of the November pogroms, the male employees were arrested and the Jewish Welfare Association was closed. Some activities were allowed to continue from December 1938 under municipal supervision.

Martha Türk

Born on 19 February 1885 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 29 May 1942 in Edinburgh.

Address: Myliusstr. 40

Martha Türk ran a practice as a paediatrician at Myliusstr. 40 until 1933. She had to close the practice in 1933 and emigrated to England together with her sister Bertha. Her older brother Eric had already been living there for some time. In England, the three siblings helped the children of refugee doctors or young refugees with an interest in studying medicine through the Eric Turk Welfare Fund/Eric Turk Charity Trust. Martha Türk soon moves to Edinburgh, where she is able to obtain a new licence to practise. She also supports people in Edinburgh who have fled there from Frankfurt, among other places.   

Martha Wertheimer

Address: Unter den Kastanien 1

Martha Wertheimer, born on 22 October 1890 in Frankfurt am Main, murdered in June 1942, presumably in the Sobibor extermination camp

Stolpersteine: Unter den Kastanien 1, for Martha and Lydia Wertheimer

The educator, author and journalist Martha Wertheimer emerged early as a self-confident and liberal woman and was one of the first women to earn a doctorate at the new Frankfurt University in 1917. She was committed to women's suffrage, but also dealt with questions of emigration of Jews, especially children and young people. Her life was marked by many changes of residence, also due to anti-Semitic harassment. After a stay in Berlin, she returned to Frankfurt in 1938. Here she devotes herself to social and cultural work and heads the youth welfare service of the Jewish Welfare Service. After the November pogroms, she organises children's transports from all over south/southwest Germany, accompanying several of them personally. She herself and her sister Lydia are forced to move into a "ghetto house" at the end of 1941, and in June 1941 they are deported to Izbica/ Sobibor.

Palästina-Amt (Palestine-Office)

Address: Unterlindau 21-23

The Palestine Office was founded as early as 1908. It was a predecessor institution of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, which was founded in 1929. The Palestine Office maintained representative offices in numerous states. The aim of the Zionist organisation was to promote the settlement of Palestine through the immigration of European Jews. The organisation assisted in obtaining exit permits, but also provided information through exit manuals and offered education and training opportunities. In Germany, the Palestine Office had its headquarters in Berlin, but maintained offices in several cities, including Frankfurt's Westend. The office was dissolved by the Reich Ministry of the Interior in June 1941.

Quaker

Address: Hochstr. 8

The Quakers, or "Religious Society of Friends", are a Christian, liberal and democratic religious community that originated in England in the mid-17th century. The Frankfurt Quakers have been helping persecuted people since the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1933. The office was last located at Hochstr. 8. Along with the Berlin office, the Frankfurt office became the most important international centre. In connection with the Kindertransports, all those Jewish parents who were non-denominational or whose children had been baptised Christian turned to the Quaker office. But members of the Jewish community also turned there. The Grüber office and the St. Raphael's Association worked together with the office, for which Dr. Rudolf Schlosser and Bergit Braach, among others, did important work in Frankfurt. The Quaker children's home and boarding school on the Eerde estate in the Netherlands, where children and young people from Frankfurt found refuge, is also of special significance.

Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Association of Jews in Germany)

The Reich Representation was founded by Jewish organisations in 1933 as the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden (Reich Representation of German Jews), in 1935, forced to change its name to Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Representation of Jews in Germany), and in 1939, incorporated in the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Association of Jews in Germany). It had its headquarters in Berlin. The Reich Association, which existed from 1939, was no longer an independent association of Jewish organisations, but was directly subordinate to the Reich Ministry of the Interior.

The association had a department called "Kinderauswanderung" (child emigration), which coordinated the bureaucratic processes in connection with the child transports - it also received the applications that parents submitted to the denominational aid agencies and the Jewish Welfare Service. The Reichsvereinigung was officially dissolved in June 1943.

Rosa and Isidor Marx

Rosa Marx, born 26 November 1888 in Randegg, deported from Frankfurt in June 1942 and murdered.

Isidor Marx, born on 28 January 1886 in Bödigheim, died on 24 November 1968 in New York City, USA

Address: Röderbergweg 87

The educator couple Rosa Marx, née Schwab, and Isidor Marx ran the Israelite Orphanage in Frankfurt's Ostend since 1918. Rosa and Isidor Marx wanted to offer the children there a place of protection in the face of everyday anti-Semitism. Children later described the atmosphere in the house as a place full of warmth and security.

Together with Martha Wertheimer, the Marx couple organised numerous transports of children. Isidor Marx accompanied numerous children abroad, including to England at the beginning of September 1939. The start of the war makes it impossible for him to return to Germany - which saves his life. His wife Rosa stayed in Frankfurt, only able to maintain irregular contact with her husband. She is deported with the remaining children during the third major deportation from Frankfurt in June 1942 and murdered.

Rudolf Schlosser

Rudolf Schlosser, born on 4 April 1880 in Giessen, died on 11 December 1944 in Giessen

Address: Launitzstr. 6

From the beginning of the 1930s, the theologian Rudolf Schlosser, associated with religious socialism, and his wife Amalie Schlosser, née Lehmann (1886-1973), continued the welfare work of the mainly British Quakers in the Frankfurt Quaker Home which had begun after the First World War. The couple became leading figures in the small Frankfurt group from 1933 onwards, and the office gained nationwide importance alongside Berlin. After the November pogroms, the couple, together with the Quaker staff, organised the transport of children, mainly to the Dutch Quaker children's home in Eerde and to England. Rudolf Schlosser died in a bombing raid on Gießen.

St. Raphaelsvereins (St. Raphael's Association)

Address: Alte Mainzer Gasse 73 (documented for the year 1955).

Catholics of Jewish origin were supported in their emigration by the "St. Raphaelsverein zum Schutze katholischer Auswanderer" (St. Raphael's Association for the Protection of Catholic Emigrants). In 1933, the association had 70 branches throughout Germany; after the transfer of power to the National Socialists, the support for racially persecuted persons was spun off into a "Sonderhilfswerk" (special relief organisation) and finally into the "Hilfswerk beim Bischöflichen Ordinariat Berlin" (relief organisation at the Episcopal Ordinariate of Berlin), which worked with the St. Raphaelsverein. Its activities were limited to Berlin, but the association was active throughout Germany, including Frankfurt, in connection with the Kindertransporte. Through the Hilfswerk, 31 children were able to leave Germany between December 1938 and August 1939. The Hilfswerk also worked together with the "Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland" (Reich Association of Jews in Germany), the Grüber office and the Quakers. An office address in Frankfurt could only be researched for the year 1955.



Ravenstein city map of Frankfurt am Main and Offenbach, 1943

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Schools and Educational Institutions

Anna-Schmidt-Schule

Address: Blittersdorffplatz 39 (today: François-Mitterrand-Platz)

In 1886, the educationalist Anna Schmidt founded the private "Lyzeum Schmidt", which was intended to provide "daughters of good family" in particular with a higher education. From 1900, the institution was recognised as a higher educational institution for girls. During the National Socialist era, the principal, Käthe Heisterbergk, succeeded in keeping Jewish pupils longer than at other schools in Frankfurt - as late as 1938, a Jewish woman passed her Abitur here. During an air raid in the Second World War, the school building on Blittersdorffplatz was destroyed and after the war moved into its present building in Gärtnerweg.

The Anna Schmidt School was attended by: Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno

Holzhausenschule (Holzhausen School)

Address: Bremer Straße 25

The Holzhausenschule (Holzhausen School) was opened in 1929 as a "simultaneous citizen school for boys and girls" on the corner of Eschersheimer Landstraße and Bremer Straße. In 1935, the school management set up two entrance classes in which only Jewish children went - they were to be separated from the other children. A total of 87 children went to these classes. 

Manfred and Herbert Rosenthal, Felix Weil, Lisa Moos and Ruth Wellhöfer attended the Holzhausen School. 

Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School)

Address: Röderbergweg 29

The Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School) was founded in 1882 and was affiliated with the neo-orthodox Israelite Religious Society. The school was aimed at poorer families, and no or only small school fees had to be paid. After its founding, the number of pupils increased rapidly, and in 1891 the school was able to move into a new building at Röderbergweg 29. There were numerous Jewish welfare and social institutions in the neighbourhood. After the November pogroms in 1938, the school building was needed for Jewish welfare, and the primary school first moved into the building of the Samson-Raphael-Hirsch School and then, after its closure, into the Philanthropin. It was able to continue teaching there until June 1942.

The Israelitische Volksschule was attended by: Leopold Bergmann, Lisa Baer, Mina and Hedy Schächter, Werner Dreifuss, Nora Bergmann, Cilly and Jutta Levitus, Ruth and Miriam Schames, Esther Edith Kleinberger, Manfred Hess, Hans and Ruth Selig

Israelitische Waisenanstalt (Jewish Orphanage)

Address: Röderbergweg 87

The Jewish Orphanage was founded in 1874, financed by Jewish social and welfare institutions. While in the beginning only orphans from Frankfurt were admitted, from 1935 onwards the institution also took in children from outside Frankfurt in order to offer them protection from the anti-Semitic atmosphere in the surrounding villages and small towns.

The orphanage had been run by the married couple Isidor and Rosa Marx since 1918. The couple successfully organised child transports to Palestine and Great Britain between 1939 and 1940. At Rosa Marx's request, her husband stayed in Great Britain on a scouting trip. Rosa Marx and the orphans who remained in Frankfurt were deported to concentration camps in 1942 and murdered.

The Jewish Orphanage was attended by: Hannelore Adler, Werner Dreifuss, Josef Einhorn, Ruth Junker, Esther Edith Kleinberger, Jutta Levitus, Cilly Levitus, Hanna Levitus, Elfriede Meyer, Heinz Schuster

Jüdische Haushaltungsschule (Jewish Home Economics School)

Address: Quinckestr. 18-20 (heute: Königswarterstraße)

Founded in 1897 on the initiative of members of the Frankfurt lodge B'nai B'rith, the Jewish Home Economics School offered girls training in cooking and home economics in half-year to full-year courses. A girls' hostel with 60 places and a boarding school were attached to the institution. From 1933 onwards, due to the increased anti-Jewish measures of the Nazi regime, it was no longer possible for many Jews to exercise their learned profession or to receive an education. The institution therefore also served to prepare for emigration: girls from the German Reich were to learn practical skills that were urgently needed in host countries such as Palestine. The exact date of closure can no longer be determined due to loss of records.

The Jewish Home Economics School was attended by: Edith Stern

Jüdische Anlernwerkstätte (Jewish training workshop)

Address: Fischerfeldstraße 13

At times, up to 130 boys completed their basic training in the Jüdische Anlernwerkstätte (Jewish training workshop). The attached dormitory offered space for about 70 trainees. The aim of the training workshop was to enable young people to acquire practical skills that would give them a better chance of emigrating abroad. From 1936 onwards, the facility was given the status of a vocational school and thus enabled state-recognised training, for example as a carpenter, welder and shoemaker. These skills were required if emigration to Palestine was to take place via the Youth Aliyah. The institution was closed in 1942, and trainees who remained in Frankfurt were deported to forced labour camps.

The Jewish training workshop was attended by: Leopold Bergmann and Walter Rosenthal

Kinderheim der Flersheim-Sichel-Stiftung (Children’s Home of the Flersheim-Sichel-Foundation)

Address: Ebersheimer Straße 5

The children's home was founded in 1863 with funds provided by the foundation of Julius and Amalie Flersheim, and was located in Ebersheimer Straße from 1930 to 1941. The home served to educate and train boys from the Jewish community; from 1933 onwards, children from the Frankfurt environs increasingly sought protection from anti-Semitic exclusion. In March 1938, 28 boys were able to leave for England with the help of James Armand de Rothschild. In September 1939, 48 children were living in the home again. The attempt to arrange for them to leave for Ecuador failed. The children and the home's staff were deported and murdered from 1941. A memorial stone in Ebersheimer Straße has commemorated the children's home since 2019.

The children's home was attended by Felix Weil

Kinderhaus der Weiblichen Fürsorge (Children's Home of the Female Welfare Service)

Address: Hans Thoma-Str. 24

The "Kinderhaus der Weiblichen Fürsorge“ (Children's Home of the Female Welfare Service) was opened in 1911. It originated from the "Verein der Weiblichen Fürsorge“ (Association of Female Welfare) founded by Bertha Pappenheim and Henriette Fürth in 1901. The children's home offered needy Jewish children accommodation, food and education. The house had 50 places for children from infancy to six years of age. From 1942 onwards, the children's home changed fundamentally because children from other shelters that had been closed by the National Socialists had to move in. In September 1942, 74 children and adults lived in the children's home. On 15 September 1942, the "Gestapo" (Secret State Police) evacuated the house. Most of the residents were deported and murdered.

Josef Einhorn lived in the children's house.

Philanthropin

Address: Hebelstraße 15-19

Founded in 1804, the Philanthropin, co-educational since 1810 and located in Hebelstraße since 1908, was a nationally renowned educational institution with a primary and secondary school branch as well as a grammar school. The school was supported by the Jewish community, but was open to all confessions. With the exclusion of Jewish pupils from Frankfurt's state schools and the influx of Jewish children from the surrounding area, the number of pupils at the Philanthropin rose sharply at first, but fell again somewhat by 1938 due to the emigration of families. In 1939, pupils at the Philanthropin were able to take the Abitur for the last time. The school was closed in July 1942. In 1966, the first Jewish school in Germany after the Shoah was opened, the I.E. Lichtigfeldschule, and in 2006 the school moved to the building in Hebelstraße. In 2021, the first class since 1939 passed the Abitur there again.

The Philanthropin was attended by: Ellen Adler, Manfred Rosenthal, Herbert Rosenthal, Felix Weil, Karl Robert Würzburger, Karl Kleinberger, Edith Levi, Ruth Eckhaus, Erika Jaffe, Walter Rosenthal, Edith Stern, Ruth and Margot Bauer, Anne Grünbaum, Hans and Ruth Marx, Marion Lore Stern, Ruth Wellhöfer, Lili Fürst, Renate Adler.

Rabbinische Lehranstalt Jeschiwa (Hoffmann’sche Jeschiwa) / Rabbinical Teaching Institute Yeshiva (Hoffmann'sche Yeshiva)

Address: Theobald-Christ-Straße 6

The Rabbinical Teaching Institute was founded in 1892 by Rabbi Dr. Markus Horovitz. Under its later director Dr. Jakob Hoffmann, it underwent a profound change, which is why it was also called Hoffmann'sche Yeshiva. Its special feature was that, in addition to religious education, it also taught the content of the secondary schools. In this way, the pupils were also to be prepared for the Abitur, university studies or their later professional life. Hoffmann, who was Zionist-oriented, also tried to find emigration opportunities for the students, some of whom reached Palestine with the Children's and Youth Aliyah. The teaching institution was closed on 10 November 1938.

Radiloschule (Radilo School)

Address: Assenheimer Str. 38-40

Little is known about the Radiloschule (Radilo School) in Frankfurt-Rödelheim. The Radiloschule was built in 1904 as a girls' school. On the same site, the building of the Rödelheimer Knabenschule (from 1914 Körnerschule) was erected in 1907. Girls were taught in the Radiloschule building and boys in the Körnerschule. At times, more than 1,000 children attended the two schools.

The Radilo School was attended by Edith Stern

Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule (Samson Raphael Hirsch School)

Address: Am Tiergarten 8 (today: Bernhard-Grzimek-Allee).

The neo-orthodox "Realschule der Israelitischen Religionsgesellschaft" was founded in 1853 and was open to both boys and girls. It was financed by school fees and donations. In 1881, the school moved into the building opposite the zoo. In the years following the handover of power to the National Socialists, the school changed its curriculum in order to prepare the pupils for possible emigration. After the November Pogroms, the school could hardly be maintained due to various anti-Semitic harassments. In March 1939, the school was dissolved. The remaining 84 pupils were transferred to classes at the Israelitische Volksschule and the Philanthropin, and a small number were rescued by Kindertransporte.

The Samson Raphael Hirsch School was attended by: Lisa Baer, Mina and Hedy Schächter, Lisa and Walter Schnerb, Leo and Felix Weiss, Anselm Hirsch, Elfriede Meyer, Heinz Schuster, Dorothy Griesheimer, Cilly and Jutta Levitus, Ruth and Miriam Schames, Esther Edith Kleinberger, Hanna Levitus, Manfred Hess, Dina Mainzer, Hans and Ruth Selig, Lina Liese Carlebach, Josef Einhorn, Karola Ruth Siegel.

Schwarzburgschule (Schwarzburg School)

Address: Lenaustraße 81

The Schwarzburgschule in the Nordend received the status of a reform primary schools in 1921. Classes were homogeneous in age, boys and girls were taught separately. With the handover of power to the National Socialists, the Schwarzburgschule became strictly national pedagogical and national socialist. The pupils were urged to join National Socialist youth associations. Jewish parents withdrew their children from school during this time. Only two years later there were no more Jewish children at the school. Flora Pick, the only Jewish teacher, was dismissed in 1934.  

Karl Robert Würzburger attended the Schwarzburg School.

Tora-Lehranstalt Jeschiwa (Breuer'sche Jeschiwa) / Torah-School Yeshiva (Breuer'sche yeshiva)

Address: Friedberger Anlage 4

The Torah-School Yeshiva was founded in 1892 by Rabbi Dr. Salomon Breuer. The Breuer'sche Yeshiva, as it was also called, was intended to enable the intensive study of Torah and rabbinic literature. In addition to courses for adults, courses were also offered for schoolchildren. As early as 1933, after the handover of power to the National Socialists, the management tried to move the yeshiva to Fiume in Italy, but this failed. However, many of the yeshiva's students were able to emigrate to the USA. On 1 April 1939, all Torah teaching institutions had to be closed.

Tora-Lehranstalt Thauras Mausche (Torah-School Thauras Mausche)

Address: Ostendstraße 18

The Torah school was founded and run by Rabbi Moses Schneider, who had come to Frankfurt from Lithuania in 1917, and was therefore also called Schneider'sche Lehranstalt. The students were primarily Eastern European Jews who had come to Frankfurt to study, but also children of immigrants who studied there in the evenings while going to work or school. About 50 people attended the classes there. During the November pogroms, the premises of the yeshiva were destroyed by National Socialists. Moses Schneider was subsequently able to escape to London with many of his students, where he continued to run the yeshiva. 

Varrentrappschule

Address: Bismarckallee (today: Theodor-Heuss-Allee 25).

The Varrentrappschule, a primary school, was built in 1898 as a "simultaneous citizen school for boys and girls". As at the Holzhausenschule, separate classes were set aside for Jewish children at the Varrentrapp School "in order to completely remove the Aryan children from Jewish influence", as the mayor of Frankfurt Friedrich Krebs informed the regional council on 24 June 1935. As a result, the Jewish children began to leave the school one by one and transferred to the Philanthropin, among other schools.

The Varrantrappschule was attended by Lili Fürst.

Wöhlerschule (Wöhler-School)

Address: Lessingstraße 1

The Wöhlerschule was founded in 1870 by the Polytechnische Gesellschaft as a grammar school for boys and was located in Lessingstraße in the period before the Second World War. Due to its location in Frankfurt's Westend, where many Jews lived, the proportion of Jewish pupils was also high at the Wöhler School. Nevertheless, from 1933 onwards, Jewish boys were systematically expelled and often moved to the Jewish grammar school in the Philanthropin. 27 former Wöhler pupils fell victim to deportation to extermination camps, which is commemorated today by a memorial plaque in front of the school. A few pupils were able to escape from Germany on Kindertransports.

The school was attended by: Karl Robert Würzburger



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Host Countries

In 1938, the restrictive measures imposed by the Nazi regime on Jewish citizens reached a sad climax. Following the annexation of Austria, the Jews living there were subjected to immense terror, arrests and deportations. In July 1938, the world reacted to this situation with a refugee conference, which was initiated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Representatives of 32 countries met in the French town of Evian. However, the conference had very little effect; there was no relaxation of the restrictive immigration conditions. 

The brutal November Pogroms of 1938 made the situation more acute. Nazis set fire to synagogues, destroyed businesses and property belonging to Jews and plundered apartments - also in Frankfurt and the surrounding region. 

In light of these events, it was hardly surprising that many families tried to at least get their children away from the Nazi dictatorship. 

The majority of them were taken in by the United Kingdom, which is why the country is still closely linked with the Kindertransporte today. However, other countries also declared themselves willing to act as hosts. Nevertheless, the number of children admitted remained far below what was required. 



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USA

In the USA, the admission of unaccompanied children and adolescents was heavily restricted; in all, 500 to 700 children entered the USA between 1938 and 1944. By July 1939, only 240 children and adolescents, among them Ruth Wellhöfer and Anne Grünebaum, had managed to enter the USA. 

In February 1939, in the aftermath of the November pogroms, Senator Robert Wagner and Member of Congress Edith Nourse Rogers drafted a bill for the admission of 20,000 persecuted children aged under 14 (the Wagner-Rogers Bill). However, the draft was rejected without ever being debated in Congress. 

After Germany invaded Poland and the United Kingdom joined the war, a few more children were rescued from Frankfurt and taken to the USA. However, during World War II, some 250 children were rescued from France with the help of the Quakers (American Friends Service Committee), the Committee for the Care of European Children and the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE). In May/June 1941, Ernst Papenek managed to get a number of children under 16 out of Germany and Austria, bringing them to the USA via Spain and Portugal; some of them were children from Frankfurt who had escaped to France in December 1938 and March 1939. However, Papanek was unable to execute his plan of setting up a children's home for them in the USA. The children were housed with families. 

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to the USA:

Margot and Ruth Bauer

Margot Bauer, born on 2 January 1925 in Schotten, date and place of death unknown

Ruth Bauer, born on 6 September 1926 in Schotten, date and place of death unknown

Addresses: Frankfurter Straße 169 in Bad Vilbel, Klingerstraße 27 in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Elementary school in Bad Vilbel, Jüdische Bezirksschule in Bad Nauheim, Philanthropin in Frankfurt am Main

Route: 1939 USA

Margot and Ruth Bauer spend their early years in Bad Vilbel, where they attend school. Since they are not permitted to attend the secondary school in Friedberg, they go to the Jüdische Bezirksschule (Jewish District School) in Bad Nauheim. In 1938, their parents, Hermann and Elsa Bauer, decide to move to Frankfurt. The girls are then sent to the Philanthropin. In December 1939, the sisters are able to flee via Genoa to the USA with a Kindertransport organised by the Quakers. On arrival, they are taken in by an aunt. Their parents reach the USA in June 1941.

Anne Grünebaum

Anne Grünebaum, born on 26 July 1926 in Oberursel, died on 26 December 2007 in Los Angeles, California, USA

Addresses: Lessingstraße 2 in Oberursel, Eschersheimer Landstraße 405 in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Ludwig-Richter-Schule, Philanthropin

Route: 1937 USA

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Eschersheimer Landstraße 405, for her father Alfred Grünebaum

Anne is born in Oberursel and at the age of three moves to Frankfurt-Eschersheim with her parents Alfred and Liesel Grünebaum. She attends the Ludwig-Richter-Schule but has to switch to the Philanthropin in 1935. Following her parents’ separation in 1937, she is sent to the USA with a Kindertransport. Her mother follows one year later. Her father’s attempts to emigrate are doomed to failure. In November 1941, he is deported to Kovno (Kaunas) and murdered.

Hans and Ruth Marx

Ruth Marx, born on 19 May 1924 in Frankfurt-Höchst, died on 18 November 1996 in Mesa, Arizona, USA

Hans Martin Marx, born on 7 October 1929 in Frankfurt-Höchst, died on 11 January 1997, Frankfurt/Main

Addresses: Königsteiner Straße 28, Zuckschwerdtstraße 16, Kantstraße 5

Schools: elementary school in the Höchst district, Philanthropin

Route: 1940 USA

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone for Hermann Marx in Zuckschwerdtstraße 16, Frankfurt-Höchst

Ruth and Hans grow up in Frankfurt’s Höchst district, where they attend elementary school. Their father, Hermann Marx, has to give up his clothing business due to increasing hostility. On the morning of 10 November 1938, he is arrested and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. In 1940, he dies of the after-effects of his incarceration, and the family’s plan to emigrate together falls through. In March 1940, Martha Marx sends her children via Italy to the USA with a Kindertransport organised by the Quakers. She is able to follow her children one year later and reaches the USA in September 1941.

Marion Lore Stern

Marion Lore Stern, born on 24 July 1925 in Frankfurt am Main

Address: Gaußstraße 23

School: Philanthropin

Route: 1939 USA

Marion Lore Stern lives in Gaußstraße and attends the Philanthropin school nearby. Her mother Gretchen Stern is a designer, her father Jakob Stern a lawyer who works for the Jewish community. In December 1939, Marion succeeds in escaping to the USA with a Kindertransport organised by the children's emigration department of the Jewish welfare organisation Jüdische Wohlfahrtspflege. Her parents manage to follow her and reach the USA in September 1941.

Ruth Wellhöfer

Ruth Wellhöfer, born on 12 February 1920 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 28 March 2008 in Dayton, Ohio, USA

Address: Kronbergerstraße 19

Schools: Holzhausenschule, Elisabethenschule, Philanthropin

Route: 1935 USA

In 1933, Ruth leaves the Elisabethengymnasium and begins attending the Philanthropin at the behest of her parents Georg and Adelhaide Wellhöfer. It is thought that she will be better protected from anti-Semitic hostility at the Philanthropin. In 1935, the Wellhöfers decide to send their only child to the United States with a Kindertransport organised by the Quakers. Ruth is taken in by relatives in Philadelphia, where she goes to school. Her parents manage to escape to the USA in 1938.



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Sweden

Jewish communities and Christian organisations began considering how to rescue Jewish children as early as August and September 1938. These considerations were triggered by the persecution of Jews in Austria and gathered momentum after the November pogroms and the announcement of the British rescue operation. 

In all, Sweden took in around 500 children as part of its Kinderaktion (children's campaign). The country mainly saw itself as a transit land for the children. Swedish citizens had donated large amounts to make the rescue possible. Sweden's Jewish communities served the state as guarantors for the children and adolescents, and also agreed to look into possibilities of sending them onwards. At the same time, the Jewish communities assumed right from the start that not all of the children would leave Sweden once they had arrived. 

The children and adolescents were placed with foster families in private and state-run homes. Most of them remained in Sweden permanently. Only around one-fifth of them actually transited the country. Around 50 children reached Palestine with the help of the Youth Aliyah organisation, having been prepared for life there by institutions such as the Kristinehov  boarding school. One of the persons responsible for the children's education at the boarding school was Erich Künstlicher from Frankfurt. A number of children were also able to travel onward to the USA and to the United Kingdom. 

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to Sweden:

Ruth Eckhaus

Ruth Eckhaus, born on 29 March 1923 in Frankfurt am Main, date and place of death unknown

Address: Lersnerstraße 32

School: Philanthropin

Route: 1939 Sweden, 1942 Argentina

Manfred Hess

Manfred Hess, born on 24 November 1924 in Birstein, died on 17 February 2001 in Sdeh-Eliyahu, Israel

Addresses: House 34b in Birstein, Obermainanlage 24 in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Jewish elementary school in Birstein, Israelitische Volksschule and Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule in Frankfurt am Main

Route: 1939 Sweden, 1941 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Obermainanlage 24, for parents Julius and Emma Hess

Manfred is born in Birstein, where the Hess family lives. In 1934, the family moves to Frankfurt to escape the rising discrimination. Following father Julius’ incarceration in Buchenwald concentration camp and brother Joachim’s imprisonment in Dachau, the family tries to find ways to emigrate. In 1939, Manfred obtains a place at a Hakhshara camp run by a Swedish aid committee in Malmö and prepares to emigrate to Palestine. He is finally able to go there in 1941. In March 1939, his brother flees to Britain. Their parents do not survive the Shoah. On 11 November 1941, they are deported to Minsk and murdered.

Erika Jaffe

Erika Jaffe, born on 1 March 1928 in Berlin, date and place of death unknown

Addresses: Nassau an der Lahn, Gärtnerweg 9 in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Elementary school in Nassau an der Lahn, Philanthropin in Frankfurt am Main

Route: 1939 Sweden, 1940 USA

In 1931, Erika moves to Nassau with her parents Leo and Gerta Jaffe. In 1937, the family moves to Frankfurt after Erika experiences anti-Semitic hostilities at school. One year later, the father is deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After his release, he flees to Belgium in December 1938 and later to Palestine. In April 1939, Erika is sent to Sweden with a Kindertransport. In 1940, she is able to emigrate onwards to the USA, where she earns a living as a dishwasher and sales assistant. Her mother is able to follow her in May 1941, but she does not see her father until 1946.

Walter Rosenthal

Walter Rosenthal, born on 24 March 1924 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 16 May 1998 in Haifa, Israel
Address: Musikantenweg 21

Schools: Philanthropin, Jüdische Anlernwerkstatt

Route: 1939 Sweden, 1941 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Musikantenweg 21, for parents Julius and Fanny Rosenthal

Walter is the oldest son of Fanny and Julius Rosenthal. He undergoes practical training at the Jüdische Anlernwerkstatt (Jewish Training Workshop) in Fischerfeldstraße and at a Hakhshara camp in Ahrensdorf in order to prepare for his emigration. He reaches Sweden with a Kindertransport in 1939 and is able to travel on to Palestine two years later. His younger brother Erich escapes to the UK with another Kindertransport and lodges at the Jewish Boys Hostel in Northampton directed by Isidor Marx. Their parents’ plans to flee to Palestine comes to nothing. They are deported and murdered in June 1942.

Edith Stern

Edith Stern, born on 13 March 1923 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 18 November 2014 in Buffalo, New York, USA

Address: Alt-Rödelheim 12

Schools: Radilo-Schule, Philanthropin, Jüdische Haushaltungsschule

Route: 1939 Sweden, 1941 USA

Memorial to the family: in 2018, a square in the Rödelheim district was named Arthur-Stern-Platz after Edith Stern’s father.

Edith is the only child of Arthur and Elly Stern. She initially attends the elementary school in Frankfurt’s Rödelheim district and later goes to the Philanthropin. From 1937, she attends the Jüdische Haushaltungsschule (Jewish Housekeeping School), where she prepares to emigrate. In June 1939, she is sent with a Kindertransport to Sweden, where she is lodged in a home in Falun. In the meantime, her parents are able to escape to the USA. Edith follows them, travelling via the Soviet Union and Japan to the USA. The family is reunited at the beginning of 1941.



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United Kingdom

The term Kindertransport  (German for children's transport) refers to the emigration of about 10,000 mostly Jewish children and adolescents, who were allowed to enter the United Kingdom between December 1938 and September 1939. Among these were an estimated 300 to 400 children and adolescents from Frankfurt. The British government had introduced strict emigration rules for adults. However, following the November Pogroms of 1938, the general British public and in particular, representatives of Jewish congregations, urged the government to do something to help the Jews who were threatened by National Socialism. Only underage persons were allowed to enter the United Kingdom, as concerns had been raised that the arrival of grown-up refugees could have a negative impact on the labour market. Charities had to deposit £50 as security per child, and travel and accomodation were organised and funded by non-governmental organisations. 

The Reich Representation of German Jews, the Jewish Community of Vienna and British committees in Prague and Poland arranged for lists of the names of children that should emigrate to the United Kingdom. The London-based interdenominational Refugee Children's Movement was in charge of placing the children in foster families and children's homes. Most of the children travelled by train and ferry, and were distributed among England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland upon their arrival. 

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to the United Kingdom:

Nora Bergmann, born on 28 April 1926 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 17 April 2019 in Australia

Address: Uhlandstraße 38

School: Israelitische Volkschule (Jewish Elementary School)

Route: 1939 Britain, 1948 Australia

Memorial blocks: Uhlandstraße 38, for Nora Bergmann, her parents Israel and Gustel Ester Bergmann, and her brother Leopold Bergmann

Nora’s parents, Israel and Ester Bergmann, originally came from Poland. In June 1938 her father is arrested and flees to France after his release. In August 1939, Nora is able to escape to Britain with one of the last Kindertransporte. Most of the time, she lives with relatives there. After leaving school, she trains as a milliner. Nora’s parents are unable to escape. They are deported and murdered. In 1948, Nora goes to Australia, where her brother → Leopold Bergmann has been living since 1938.

Dorothy Griesheimer

Dorothy Griesheimer, born on 15 February 1923 in Frankfurt am Main

Addresses: Obermainanlage 24, Am Schützenbrunnen 13 (now Alfred-Brehm-Platz 13)

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Britain, 1940 USA

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Alfred-Brehm-Platz 13, for parents Thekla and Joseph Harry Griesheimer

Dorothy is the only child of Thekla and Joseph Harry Griesheimer. After the November pogroms of 1938, her parents send her to Britain with a Kindertransport in June 1939. In London, Dorothy is taken in by a girls’ home run by B´nai B´rith. Further schooling is not an option. Dorothy finds a job which requires her to work on the Sabbath. Due to her very religious upbringing, she asks her parents for permission. In 1940, Dorothy is able to emigrate onwards to the USA, where some of her relatives are living. Her parents are deported and murdered in 1942.

Herbert Rosenthal

Herbert Rosenthal, born on 15 February 1924 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 30 October 1942 during a torpedo attack

Addresses: Eschersheimer Landstraße 69, Wolfsgangstraße 35, Ulmenstraße 8

Schools: Holzhausenschule, Philanthropin

Route: 1939 Britain, 1940 interned in Australia

On 2 February 1939, Herbert leaves Germany and is taken to Britain with a Kindertransport. His younger brother → Manfred Rosenthal had already been sent to acquaintances in France in December 1938. On his 16th birthday, Herbert is classified as an “enemy alien” in Britain; shortly afterwards, he is deported to Australia, where he is interned. His parents Erna and Milan Rosenthal leave no stone unturned to get him released. In October 1942, Herbert dies in a torpedo attack on the ship that is taking him back to Britain.

Felix Weil

Felix Weil, born on 12 December 1927 in Frankfurt am Main

Addresses: Wolfsgangstraße 105, Sophienstraße 12, Flersheim-Sichel-Stiftung children’s home

Schools: Holzhausenschule, Philanthropin

Route: 1939 Britain, 1945 USA

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Sophienstraße 12, for parents Ludwig and Linda Weil and sister Henny Weil

Felix’s parents, Linda and Ludwig Weil, are initially against leaving Germany. However, in 1939 they send their son to the Flersheim-Sichel-Stiftung children’s home, where he waits for an opportunity to emigrate to Britain with a Kindertransport. On 10 August 1939, Felix bids farewell to his parents and his sister Henny. On arrival in Britain, he is lodged at a boarding school. In 1945, he is able to emigrate onwards to the USA, where some of his relatives are living. In 1946, Felix returns to Germany as an American soldier. His parents and sister are deported in 1941 and murdered during the Shoah.

Karl Robert Würzburger

Karl Robert Würzburger, born on 29 November 1922 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 11 January 2010 in Wickford, UK

Addresses: Bockenheimer Landstraße 9, Bockenheimer Landstraße 73

Schools: Schwarzburgschule, Wöhler-Gymnasium, Philanthropin

Route: 1939 Britain

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Bockenheimer Landstraße 9, for parents Siegfried and Gertrude Würzburger and brother Hans Würzburger

Karl Robert is the youngest of the four sons born to musicians Siegfried and Gertrude Würzburger. After the November pogroms, he attends a Hakhshara camp in order to prepare for his emigration. On 24 August 1939, Karl Robert leaves Germany and is taken to Britain with a Kindertransport. Here he earns a living as a houseboy and tailor’s apprentice. When he hears that his parents and oldest brother Hans have been deported, Karl Robert voluntarily enlists with the British Army. In June 1944, he lands in Normandy; as soldier Kenneth Ward, he is also stationed in Germany.



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Palestine

After the November pogroms, between 3,400 and 5,000 children were able to flee to Palestine with help of the Youth Aliyah organisation. Founded by Recha Freier on 30 January 1933, the organisation's aim was to rescue as many children and adolescents as possible from Nazi Germany, take them to Palestine and get them involved in building the country. This project was based on a strictly religious ideological concept, which however was relaxed in 1938 as a result of the humanitarian crisis. 

67 children and adolescents probably left Frankfurt am Main for Palestine: 35 boys were rescued from the orphanage in Frankfurt with the help of James Armand de Rothschild, the head of the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA). In April 1939, the group set off from Frankfurt under the escort of orphanage director Isidor Marx, later finding a new home in Kfar HaNoar HaDati children's village. 16 girls from the orphanage followed them in March 1940. The girls went to Jerusalem, where they attended the Evelina de Rothschild girls' school. One last group of 16 children left Frankfurt illegally in October 1940 - their flight crossed many borders and lasted several months. 

Some of these young people later joined the Jewish Brigade to fight with the Allies against the National Socialists. 

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to Palestine:

Esther Edith Kleinberger

Esther Edith Kleinberger, born on 31 December 1924 in Frankfurt am Main, died in 2014 in Haifa, Israel

Addresses: Home run by the Jüdische Frauenbund in Neu-Isenburg, Israelitisches Waisenhaus

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1940 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Berger Straße 72, for brother Karl Kleinberger

Because her mother Niche Kleinberger is ill, Esther Edith is taken in by a home run by the Jüdische Frauenbund (League of Jewish Women) in Neu-Isenburg after her birth and is then sent to the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt in 1928. Her twin brother → Karl Kleinberger is brought up by a great-uncle. In March 1940, Esther Edith travels by boat from Trieste to Palestine with a group of 16 girls from the Israelitisches Waisenhaus. Esther Edith is given a home at the religious children’s and educational institution Beth Zeiroth-Mizrachi and later trains as a children’s nurse.

Karl Kleinberger

Karl Kleinberger, born on 1 January 1925 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 6 June 2015 in Haifa, Israel

Address: Berger Straße 72

School: Philanthropin

Country of refuge: 1940 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Berger Straße 72, for Karl Kleinberger and his foster parents Ignatz and Henriette Kleinberger

Because Karl’s mother Niche Kleinberger is ill, Karl is brought up by his great-uncle Ignatz Kleinberger, while his twin sister → Esther Edith Kleinberger is sent to the orphanage. At the end of October 1938, Ignatz Kleinberger is deported to Poland during the so-called “Polish Action”. Like his sister, Karl is taken in by the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage). In October 1940, Karl is able to escape through the Balkans to Palestine as part of an illegal rescue campaign organised by Recha Freier.

Edith Levi

Edith Levi, born on 21 March 1923 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 15 October 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel

Address: Mauerweg 30, Josef-Haydn-Straße 56

School: Philanthropin

Route: 1939 Palestine, 1948 Argentina, 1978 Israel

Edith is nine years old when her mother Else Levi dies. In January 1939, her father, textile merchant Ferdinand Levi, sends her with a Youth Aliyah group to Palestine, where she spends two years living in a kibbutz and undergoes a course of agricultural training. In 1942, she joins the British Army’s Jewish Brigade. Her father is deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942 – he is one of very few who survive this concentration camp. Father and daughter are reunited in 1945 when Edith comes to Germany as a soldier. Together they emigrate to Argentina in 1948.

Hanna Levitus

Hanna Levitus, born on 6 October 1924 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 8 June 2002 in Kfar Saba, Israel

Address: Israelitisches Waisenhaus

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1940 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Höhenstraße 18, for mother Regina Levitus and brother Josef Levitus

After the early death of their father Ignatz Levitus, Hanna and her siblings Cilly, Jutta and Josef live at the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage). Their mother Regina Levitus has been a housekeeper there since 1937. On 24 March 1940, the mother accompanies 16 girls from the Orphanage to Trieste. Hanna is also one of the group. While the mother returns from Trieste to Frankfurt, the girls travel onward to Haifa. Hanna spends one year in Jerusalem, where she attends the Evelina de Rothschild Girls’ School. From 1941, she works in domestic service. Her sisters → Cilly and Jutta survive the war in the Netherlands and travel to Palestine in 1946. Their mother and brother are deported and murdered in 1942.

Lisa Moos

Lisa Moos, born on 31 December 1919 in Mannheim, died on 28 June 2006 in Bad Soden in the Taunus region

Address: Grüneburgweg 64

Schools: Holzhausenschule, Fürstenbergerschule

Route: 1935 Palestine, 1990 Germany

Lisa Moos is born in Mannheim and grows up in Frankfurt. In 1933, her brother Friedrich Wilhelm, who is five years older, begins attending an agricultural teaching institution in Denmark in order to prepare for his emigration to Palestine. He goes to Palestine later that year. On 31 July 1935, Lisa is able to follow him to Palestine with a Youth Aliyah group. For two years, she lives in the Merhavia kibbutz in the Emek valley east of Haifa. Her parents Hugo and Sophie Moos are able to flee to Palestine in the autumn of 1940.



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Netherlands

The Netherlands began allowing Jewish children to enter the country after the November pogroms. Some of them arrived as early as 15 November 1938. 24 children from the Jewish Orphanage in Frankfurt, among them Cilly and Jutta Levitus, were chosen for the Kindertransport that left the city on 22 November. Various sources indicate that anything from 1,500 to 1,900 children and adolescents were permitted to enter the Netherlands, at least 35 of whom came from Frankfurt am Main. Initially, they were only admitted on condition that they travelled onward within a reasonable time. In some cases, Dutch aid workers collected the children in Cologne and took them across the border. 

Most of the children lived in homes, some with foster families or relatives. Some of the children were able to travel onward to the United Kingdom, Palestine or other countries. 

Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer played an important part in the Kindertransporte. Her fearless negotiations helped make the Kindertransporte possible in the first place. Shortly before the Netherlands capitulated in May 1940, "Tante Truss", as she was known, managed to organise one last Kindertransport of 74 children from the Netherlands to the UK. 

After the country surrendered, many of the children who had fled to the Netherlands with the Kindertransporte were immediately threatened with deportation. Some of them were able to survive in rural areas or in hiding, but most of them were deported and murdered. 

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to the Netherlands:

Ruth and Liesel Hess

Ruth Hess, born on 10 December 1932 in Frankfurt am Main

Elise (Liesel) Hess, born on 18 December 1933 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 26 October 2009 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA

Address: Oberer Atzemer 10

Route: 1938 Netherlands, 1940 USA

As children, Ruth and Liesel become eyewitnesses of the November pogroms. A few days later, they are taken to the Netherlands with a Kindertransport. Because they are so young, the girls find it difficult to understand why their parents are “sending them away”. The day after their arrival, a Dutch newspaper publishes a photo of them with the headline, “Escaped from the German pogroms”. During their time in the Netherlands, Ruth and Liesel live in five different children’s homes. Not until 1940 are they able to see their parents Siegfried and Helene Hess again and emigrate with them to the USA.

Thomas and Gerhard Leo

Thomas Leo, born on 17 June 1925 in Marburg an der Lahn

Gerhard Leo, born on 31 January 1930 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 14 September 1998 in San Jose, California, USA

Addresses: Comeniusstraße 10 in Frankfurt am Main, Altkönigstraße 30 in Oberursel

Schools: Elementary school in Oberursel, Gymnasium in Oberursel

Route: 1939 Netherlands, 1939 Venezuela, 1940 USA

Thomas and Gerhard Leo grow up in Oberursel. In 1935, their father Ulrich Leo is dismissed from his post at the university because of his Jewish origins; three years later, he emigrates to Caracas to take up a post there. The family’s apartment is destroyed during the November pogroms. On 5 January 1939, mother Helene Leo sends her sons, both of whom have been baptised into the Protestant church, to the Netherlands with a group of eleven children; here they attend the Quaker school in Eerde. At the end of August 1939, the family is able to leave Europe and follow father Ulrich to Venezuela. In 1940, Thomas and Gerhard are able to continue their training in the USA with the support of the Quakers.

Cilly and Jutta Levitus

Cilly Levitus, born on 19 October 1925 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 3 November 2010 in Langen

Jutta Levitus, born on 30 July 1928 in Strasbourg

Address: Israelitisches Waisenhaus

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1938 Netherlands, 1946 Palestine, 1957 Germany (Cilly)

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Höhenstraße 18, for mother Regina Levitus and brother Josef Levitus

After the early death of their father Ignaz Levitus in 1931, Cilly, Jutta and their siblings → Hanna and Josef are initially rehomed separately. Later they live together in the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage), where their mother Regina Levitus has been working as a housekeeper since 1937. Cilly, Jutta and 24 other children travel to Amsterdam soon afterwards, on 22 November 1938. The two girls are lodged in an orphanage. They survive in hiding with forged documents. In 1946, they emigrate to Palestine. Cilly returns to Germany in 1957.

Edith and Max Mader

Edith Mader, born on 24 May 1931 in Frankfurt am Main, died in July 1980 in New York, USA

Max Mader, born on 18 May 1932 in Frankfurt am Main

Address: Hanauer Landstraße 16a

School: Israelitische Volkschule (Jewish Elementary School)

Route: 1938 Netherlands, 1939 Britain, 1952 USA (Edith), 1959 Israel (Max)

On 10 November 1938, Max and Edith are forced to witness the arrest of their father Gerszon Mader; he is then taken to Buchenwald concentration camp. Shortly afterwards, their mother Rosa Mader, secretary at the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage), manages to send Max and Edith to the Netherlands with a group of children. In the middle of 1939, the children travel onward to Britain, where their parents arrive some time later. Their father becomes a British soldier but dies in 1941 aged just 41. In 1952, Edith emigrates to the USA. Max lives in Britain for 20 years before emigrating to Israel.

Ruth and Miriam Schames

Ruth Schames, born on 12 October 1925 in Frankfurt am Main, date and place of death unknown

Miriam Schames, born on 18 July 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, date and place of death unknown

Address: Uhlandstraße 52

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Netherlands, 1939 Palestine

Ruth and Miriam’s father, Manfred Moses Schames, is a well-known art dealer in Frankfurt. He is arrested during the November pogroms and released from Buchenwald concentration camp on condition that he leaves the county by the end of January 1939. The family prepares to flee to Palestine. The two daughters are sent to the Netherlands with a Kindertransport at the beginning of January 1939. The girls are housed in a children’s home on the North Sea coast. Together with their parents Manfred Moses and Elsa Schames, they are able to emigrate via France and Italy to Palestine in April 1939.



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Belgium

The Belgian Ministry of Justice reacted comparatively quickly to the anti-Semitic uprisings of November 1938 and approved the entry of 250 children less than two weeks later. By the spring of 1939, the government had permitted a further 750 children to enter. They would only be allowed to stay for a limited period. In all, between 800 and 1,000 children found (at least temporary) refuge in Belgium, including around 50 children and adolescents from Frankfurt. The Kindertransporte were coordinated by a network of Jewish and non-Jewish aid organisations. The conditions were not particularly strict; the government merely required the aid organisations to act as guarantors for the children's maintenance. 

Following Germany’s invasion of Western Europe in May 1940, many children escaped to the south of France with the help of aid organisations such as the Comité d’Assistance aux Enfants juifs réfuigiés (CAEJR), the Oeuvre deSecours aux Enfants (OSE) and others. However, they were again threatened with deportation later on.

Around one-third of the children who emigrated from Germany to Belgium were able to leave the country again by April 1941; many of them escaped to the United Kingdom and the USA, others to Palestine. A number of children survived in Belgium thanks to the support of aid and resistance organisations and private persons. They were lodged in monasteries and Christian homes and with Christian families. Some children who had initially found refuge there were deported and presumably murdered during the Shoah.

The Hessian emigrants Rosi and Siegfried Rothschild, Ruth and Jonas Tiefenbrunner and Jenny Sender-Fink also played an important role for the children as helpers in their new country.

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to Belgium:

Ellen Adler

Ellen Adler, born on 3 November 1927 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 29 July 2017 in Connecticut, USA

Address: Reuterweg 98

School: Philanthropin

Route: 1938 Belgium, 1939 Britain, 1940 USA

Like her older sister Inge Betty, Ellen Adler attends the Philanthropin school. Their father is arrested on 10 November 1938 and interned in Buchenwald concentration camp for several weeks. On 20 December 1938, parents Hugo and Flora Adler send Ellen to Belgium with a Kindertransport. Ellen initially lives with relatives in Brussels and later in a children’s home in Antwerp. Meanwhile, her parents and sister have fled to Britain; Ellen is able to follow them in July 1939. One year later, the family emigrates to the USA.

Lisa Baer

Lisa Baer, born on 13 March 1923 in Frankfurt am Main, date and place of death unknown

Addresses: Hölderlinstraße 5, Scheffelstraße 27

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1938 Belgium, 1941 USA

Although her family has already left Germany, Lisa Baer initially stays in Frankfurt until she has obtained her intermediate school-leaving certificate (Mittlere Reife). Her older brothers Richard and Rudolph had emigrated to the USA in 1933 and 1936 respectively, while her mother Pauline Baer had fled to Belgium. Father Ferdinand Baer had died back in 1924. On 20 December 1938, Lisa is able to follow her mother to Belgium with a group of children from Frankfurt. After her arrival, she initially goes to school then starts training as a physiotherapist. However, she has to break off her training when German troops invade Belgium in May 1940. She flees to France, presumably with her mother. From there, they manage to escape to the USA in the spring of 1941.

Marion Linz

Marion Linz, born on 12 November 1934 in Frankfurt am Main

Address: Scheidswaldstraße 72

Route: 1938 Belgium, 1940 France, 1941 Dominican Republic, 1945 USA

After the November pogroms, merchant Eugen Linz and his wife Henriette send their four-year-old daughter Marion to Belgium with a Kindertransport departing on 12 December 1938. Her parents follow later. After the invasion of Western Europe, the mother and daughter flee to France, while the father is arrested in Brussels and interned in various camps in France. At the end of 1941, the family escapes to the Dominican Republic, where they live until 1945. After the end of the war, they travel onwards to the USA.

Mina and Hedy Schächter

Mina Schächter, born on 10 March 1926 in Frankfurt am Main

Hedy Schächter, born on 24 July 1931 in Frankfurt am Main

Address: Ostendstraße 3

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Belgium, 1946 Britain, 1948 (Mina) and 1949 (Hedy) Palestine/Israel, 1950 (Mina) and 1955 (Hedy) USA

Mina and Hedy’s parents, Isi and Sofie Schächter, come from Austro-Hungary but have been living in Germany since 1913. Father Isi flees to Antwerp at the beginning of 1939. In April 1939, the daughters join a Kindertransport to follow him; in August 1939, son Benno reaches Britain with a Kindertransport, while their mother and sister Eva flee to Belgium on foot. After the occupation of Belgium, the family is interned. Both parents and sister Eva are deported. Mina and Hedy survive in hiding. After the war, they follow their brother to Britain. At the end of the 1940s, they go to Palestine/Israel and later to the USA.

Walter and Lisa Schnerb

Walter Schnerb, born on 31 July 1925 in Frankfurt am Main, died in January 2019 in New York, USA

Lisa Schnerb, born on 22 February 1931 in Frankfurt am Main, date and place of death unknown

Addresses: Hölderlinstraße 2, Röderbergweg 93

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1938 Belgium, 1939 Britain, 1940 USA

Lisa and Walter Schnerb are among the first 250 children permitted by the Belgian government to enter the country. On 13 December 1938, they arrive in Antwerp and are taken in by relatives. Their parents Godchaux and Jutta Jenny Schnerb manage to escape to Britain and have their children brought to them in May 1939. After war breaks out, the children are evacuated and the family is separated once again. In December 1939, they succeed in travelling together to the USA, where they become active members of the Breuer community in New York.

Felix and Leo Weiss

Felix Weiss, born in 1925 in Wiesbaden, date and place of death unknown

Leo Weiss, born on 19 January 1928 in Wiesbaden, deported to Auschwitz on 11 September 1942 and murdered

Addresses: Kaiser-Friedrich-Ring 66 in Wiesbaden, Obermainanlage 10 in Frankfurt am Main

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Belgium, 1940 Palestine (Felix), 1940 France (Leo)

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Kaiser-Friedrich-Ring 66 in Wiesbaden, for parents Isak (Isaak) and Sara Weiss and for siblings Klara and Leo Weiss

At the end of 1938, Isaak Weiss, father of Leo and Felix, is the first member of the family to flee to Belgium. On 22 February 1939, his sons follow with a Kindertransport to Antwerp. Mother Sara and sister Klara join them in June 1939. Soon, however, the family is torn apart again. In February 1940, Felix emigrates to Palestine with the Youth Aliyah. After the occupation of Belgium in 1940, the rest of the family flee to France but are interned there. Leo, his mother and his sister are deported via Drancy to Auschwitz, where they are murdered. His father escapes to Switzerland and survives the war.



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France

By April 1939, several groups of children from Germany and Austria had found their way to France; in all, around 600 to 700 children aged under 15 found refuge there, including at least 36 children from Frankfurt. The French government had originally pledged to take in 200 children a month; however, they retracted their pledge due to the influx of immigrants who entered France from Spain following the end of the Spanish Civil War.

The Jewish children’s aid society Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE) played an important part in organizing and funding the Kindertransporte to France, where they also provided shelters and schools for the children. The OSE also worked “illegally” and helped children enter the country with passports provided by French families.

Many of the refugee children who came to France in this way were lodged in children’s homes near Paris that were directed by Dr. Ernst Papanek, an Austrian educationalist and Social Democrat. After the German troops invaded in 1940, the children were evacuated to the part of France that was not yet unoccupied. However, at the end of 1942, they again found themselves in danger. The OSE made every effort to find ways for them to escape.

A number of children, including boys from the Jewish Orphanage in Frankfurt, were able to flee to the USA. Other children and adolescents survived in hiding or fled to Switzerland. However, many of them were unable to get away. These children were deported and murdered.

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to France:

Werner Dreifuss

Werner Dreifuss, born on 12 March 1931 in Frankfurt am Main

Addresses: Home run by the Jüdische Frauenbund (League of Jewish Women) in Neu-Isenburg, Israelitisches Waisenhaus in Frankfurt am Main

School: Israelitische Volkschule (Jewish Elementary School)

Route: 1939 France, 1941 USA

Werner Dreifuss grows up at the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt. In March 1939, he and 15 other children are able to escape with a Kindertransport to France, where he lives in various homes. In June 1941, he and a number of other children manage to flee via Spain and Portugal to the USA. In 1942, his mother Henni Dreifuss is deported from Darmstadt and murdered.

Anselm Hirsch

Anselm Hirsch, born on 18 May 1927 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 21 April 2007 in Jerusalem, Israel

Address: Grüne Straße 30

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1938 France, 1941 USA

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Grüne Straße 30, for Mathilde and Hermann Hirsch and siblings Werner and Roseline Hirsch

Anselm is the second of Hermann and Mathilde Hirsch’s seven children. In November 1938, his father is arrested and incarcerated at Buchenwald concentration camp for several weeks. His mother decides to send her five older children, Flora, Anselm, Gustl, Jakob (later Jack) and Benjamin, to France with a Kindertransport departing on 5 December 1938. Anselm is separated from his siblings and lives in a children’s home in Eaubonne established by Ernst Papanek. After Germany occupies France in 1940, he is able to escape to the unoccupied south. From here, he and his brother Jakob manage to flee to the USA, followed two months later by Flora, Gustl and Benjamin. In 1942, their parents and siblings Werner and Roseline are deported and murdered. Asher Hirsch, as he now calls himself, returns to his former home as an American soldier. Here he is stationed at Camp King in Oberursel.

Elfriede Meyer

Elfriede Meyer, born on 8 June 1926 in Mönchengladbach

Addresses: Rubensstraße 18, Israelitisches Waisenhaus

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School) in Mönchengladbach, Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule in Frankfurt am Main

Route: 1939 France, 1941 USA

Elfriede spends her early years in Mönchengladbach. After the death of father Julius Meyer in 1937, mother Recha Meyer and her two daughters Elfriede and Klara return to Frankfurt, where Recha was born. Elfriede lives in the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage). On 8 March 1939, the girl is able to emigrate to France with a group of 15 young people from the orphanage. After the invasion of Western Europe, the children flee to the as yet unoccupied South of France. In June 1941, Elfriede is able to reach the USA. Her mother and sister are deported and murdered.

Manfred Rosenthal

Manfred Rosenthal, born on 19 September 1926 in Frankfurt am Main

Addresses: Eschersheimer Landstraße 69, Wolfsgangstraße 35, Ulmenstraße 8

Schools: Holzhausenschule, Philanthropin

Route: 1938 France, 1941 USA

Like his brother → Herbert Rosenthal, who is two years older, Manfred first attends the Holzhausenschule and later the Philanthropin. After the November pogroms, parents Erna and Milan Rosenthal send their younger son to acquaintances in France. A few months later, Manfred is taken in by a children’s home in Strasbourg. After the Germans invade France, he embarks on an odyssey through the country. In June 1941, Manfred is able to flee to the USA with the help of the Quakers and is finally reunited with his parents after three years apart.

Heinz Schuster

Heinz Schuster, born on 18 March 1926 in Sterbfritz, died on 26 May 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Addresses: Alte Schlüchterner Straße 10 in Sterbfritz, Israelitisches Waisenhaus in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Elementary school in Sterbfritz, Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule in Frankfurt am Main

Route: 1939 France, 1941 USA

Heinz grows up in Sterbfritz, where he attends the elementary school. His father Abraham Schuster dies in 1935, one year after he was forced to give up his business. Heinz is taken in by the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt, where he is able to continue attending school. In March 1939, he flees to France with ten other children, some of whom also come from the orphanage, and is initially housed in a children’s home near Paris. In 1941, he manages to escape to the USA. In 1946, Henry Schuster, as he now calls himself, returns to Germany as an American soldier. His mother Rosa and sister Margot are deported and murdered in 1942. Sister Bertel survives the Shoah.



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Switzerland

After the November pogroms of 1938, the Schweizer Hilfswerk für Emigrantenkinder (Swiss Aid Organisation for Emigrant Children, SHEK) campaigned for children to be permitted to emigrate to Switzerland. Following tough negotiations between the SHEK and the Swiss Aliens Police, Switzerland finally declared itself willing to serve as a transit country for 300 Jewish children. Only orphans and children whose fathers were imprisoned in concentration camps were permitted to enter. However, the quota approved was not fully exhausted. The SHEK’s campaigners included Georgine Gerhard and Dr. Netti Sutro-Katzenstein.

Permission was given for the children to enter Switzerland just ten days after the November pogroms; however, they were to travel onward to a third country within a period of six months. The first group consisted of less than 100 children, who left Frankfurt on 5 January 1939 under the escort of Isidor Marx, director of the Jewish orphanage. Most of the children were lodged in children’s homes, while some were fostered by families. The children were accomodated at the children’s home Wartheim in Heiden, at the children’s camp Aufgent in Buus, at the Jewish orphanage in Basel and later at the children’s home Waldeck in Langenbruck.

In view of the increasing persecution and the outbreak of World War II, many of the children stayed in Switzerland for six years rather than six months. After the war ended, they were ordered to move on; many of them found refuge in Palestine.

Switzerland also served as a refuge for some 1,500 to 2,000 children who had entered the country illegally after the deportations began in Western Europe.

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to Switzerland:

Hannelore Adler

Hannelore Adler, born on 6 April 1927 in Giessen, died on 7 January 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA

Addresses: Nordanlage 49 in Giessen, Wallstraße 11 in Bad Homburg, Jüdische Bezirksschule boarding school in Bad Nauheim, Israelitisches Waisenhaus in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Schillerschule Giessen, Jüdische Bezirksschule in Bad Nauheim

Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1945 Palestine, 1954 USA

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Nordanlage 49 in Giessen for Hannelore Adler, her mother Helene Adler and her sister Margot Adler; Riccarda-Huch-Schule in Giessen for Margot Adler; Wallstraße 11 in Bad Homburg for Helene and Margot Adler

Hannelore Adler grows up in Giessen with her older sister Margot. In November 1936, her father Albert Adler becomes the victim of an anti-Semitic attack and dies of his injuries. Mother Helene Adler takes her daughters to Bad Homburg, where her family lives. Hannelore attends the Jüdische Bezirksschule (Jewish District School) in Bad Nauheim. After the November pogroms of 1938, she spends a short time at the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt, from where she is taken to Switzerland with a Kindertransport on 5 January 1939. In Switzerland, she lives at the Wartheim children’s home in Heiden. In September 1945, Hannelore is able to emigrate to Palestine, where she begins a course of agricultural training at a kibbutz. Later, she works as a children’s nurse. Her mother and sister are deported and murdered in June 1942.

Ruth Junker

Ruth Junker, born on 8 January 1926 in Groß-Karben, died on 1 February 2012 in Avigdor, Israel

Addresses: Heldenberger Straße 1 in Groß-Karben, Israelitisches Waisenhaus in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Elementary school in Groß-Karben, Jüdische Bezirksschule in Bad Nauheim

Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1945 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Heldenberger Straße 1 in Groß-Karben for Ruth Junker, her parents Bella and Josef Junker and her sister Margot Junker

Ruth Junker lives in Groß-Karben and initially also attends school there. In 1937, she switches to the Jüdische Bezirksschule (Jewish District School) in Bad Nauheim. After the November pogroms, she is taken in by the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt. She is one of the 100 children taken from Frankfurt to Switzerland by Kindertransport on 5 January 1939. In Switzerland, she lives in the children’s home in Heiden and later at the ORT school in Langenbruck. In 1945, she is able to emigrate to Palestine. In 1941, her parents Bella and Josef Junker and her sister Margot are deported from Frankfurt to Minsk and murdered.

Kurt Lamm

Kurt Lamm, born on 29 July 1924 in Homberg (Ohm), died on 27 December 2009 in Frankfurt am Main

Addresses: Obergasse in Homberg (Ohm), Jüdische Bezirksschule boarding school in Bad Nauheim, Rechneigrabenstraße 18/20 in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Elementary school in Homberg (Ohm), Jüdische Bezirksschule in Bad Nauheim

Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1949 Palestine, 1958 Germany

Kurt spends his early years in Homberg (Ohm) with his parents Max and Lotte Lamm and his siblings Amanda and Werner. Later he goes to the Jüdische Bezirksschule (Jewish District School) in Bad Nauheim as a boarder. His mother works in the school kitchen. After the attack on the school in November 1938, Kurt moves back in with his parents, who are now living in Frankfurt. In January 1939, he manages to escape to Switzerland with a group of 100 children. He initially lives in a children’s home in Buus, and later in Waldeck. Kurt becomes a shoemaker; at times he is interned. He emigrates to Palestine in 1949 after the end of the war. In 1958, Kurt returns to Frankfurt. His parents and siblings are unable to escape from Germany. In November 1941, they are deported to Minsk and murdered.

Dina Mainzer

Dina Mainzer, born on 31 August 1925 in Frankfurt am Main

Address: Hanauer Landstraße 1

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1939 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Hanauer Landstraße 1, for the members of the Mainzer family who were forced into exile

Dina is the daughter of baker Aron Mainzer and his wife Ida, and has three older siblings, Helene, Ruth and Jona. After the November pogroms, their father is forced to sell his bakery and prepares the escape of his family. At the beginning of January 1939, Dina reaches Switzerland with a Kindertransport. Six weeks later, she and her parents are able to emigrate to Palestine, where she becomes a nurse.

Hans and Ruth Selig

Hans Selig, born on 19 June 1927 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 21 October 2014 in Jerusalem, Israel

Ruth Selig, born on 25 June 1930 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 3 October 2003 in Sunnyvale, California, USA

Address: Bäckerweg 32

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1940 USA, 1967/68 Israel (Hans)

Following Sigmund Selig’s release from Buchenwald concentration camp, he and his wife Flora try in vain to escape with their three children. The family is torn apart. On 5 January 1939, younger siblings Hans (later Henry) and Ruth are sent with a Kindertransport to Switzerland, where they spent a year in different homes. Their older brother Walter goes to France at the end of 1938; three months later, he emigrates to Palestine with the Youth Aliyah organisation. The parents and younger children later manage to escape via Britain to the USA.



Map of the Host Countries

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Australia

Only a few Jewish children found refuge in Australia after the November Pogroms. Jewish organisations managed to rescue a number of individuals such as Leopold Bergman, who came to Australia from Frankfurt under the auspices of the Australian Jewish Welfare Society. Apart from this, only one Kindertransport is known to have taken place. In June 1939, a group of 17 children – seven boys and ten girls aged between five and twelve – emigrated from Berlin to Australia. They were accommodated in the Larino children’s home near Melbourne.

All other attempts to organise Kindertransporte to Australia or New Zealand came to nothing. However, after the war broke out, numerous emigrants who had been interned as “enemy aliens” in the UK were transported to Australian detention camps. The 2,500 men affected included a number of Kindertransport children who were already over 16, Herbert Rosenthal among them. Leopold Bergmann, who had been living in Australia since 1938, was also interned.

The young men were permitted to return to the United Kingdom if they declared themselves willing to enlist in the British Army.

Among others, the following children and adolscents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to Austrailia:

Leopold Bergmann

Leopold Bergmann, born on 31 July 1921 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 31 July 1998 in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia

Address: Uhlandstraße 38

School: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Jüdische Anlernwerkstatt (Jewish Training Workshop)

Route: 1938 Australia

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Uhlandstraße 38, for Leopold Bergmann, his parents Israel and Gustel Ester Bergmann, and his sister Nora Bergmann

Leopold Bergmann’s parents originally came from Poland. The family lives in Frankfurt’s East End. In June 1938, father Israel Bergmann is arrested. After his release, he flees to France. Leopold prepares to emigrate by attending the Jüdische Anlernwerkstatt in Fischerfeldstraße, where he trains as a mechanic. In August 1938, he is able to emigrate via Britain to Australia with the help of the Australian Jewish Welfare Society. In 1942, he is interned there. After his release, he enlists as a soldier with the Australian Army. In 1948, his sister → Nora Bergmann follows him from Britain to Australia.

01

Lina Liese (called Liesel) Carlebach, later Lee Edwards



Liesel Carlebach

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Short Biography of Lina Liese (called Liesel) Carlebach, later Lee Edwards

Addresses: Obermainanlage 21, Gaußstraße 16
School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule
Route: 1939 UK, 1946 Germany, 1948 UK, 1948 Canada, 1952 USA

13 December 1923
Lina Liese Carlebach is born in Frankfurt am Main, the second child of Moritz and Sophie Carlebach, née Runkel. Her father is a merchant and manages the company Gebrüder Carlebach.

November 1938
Liesel Carlebach’s father is deported to Buchenwald during the November pogroms. Her brother Emil, who was an active member of the Communist youth movement and had already been arrested in 1934, was also imprisoned there until the camp was liberated in 1945.

December 1938
Liesel Carlebach’s father is released. The parents decide to send their daughter to the United Kingdom with a Kindertransport.

March 1939
Liesel Carlebach emigrates to the UK, where she is taken in by a young couple from Coventry.

29 March 1939
Liesel Carlebach’s father dies from the after-effects of his incarceration. She does not hear of his death until she returns to Germany in 1946. Until the beginning of the war, Liesel Carlebach stays in contact with her mother by telephone.

1940
After the bombing raids on Coventry, the couple with whom Liesel is living moves away. Lee, as Liesel is now called, lives with a neighbour from then on.

1941–1945
Lee Carlebach attends evening classes at a trade school and studies shorthand and French at the Technical College in Coventry.

8 May 1942
Lee Carlebach‘s mother is deported to Izbica; it is unknown when and where she died.

1946
Lee Carlebach returns to Germany as a civilian employee of the U.S. Army. She is initially stationed in Esslingen, where she meets Arnold James Edwards (formerly Eckhaus). A short time later, the couple move to Frankfurt, where they continue working for the U.S. Army.

1 March 1947
Lee Carlebach and Arnold James Edwards (known as Jim) marry in Frankfurt.

1948
After spending a short time in the United Kingdom, the couple emigrate to Canada.

1952
The couple are granted visas for the USA. They first live in San Francisco and later settle in Los Angeles. Lee Edwards uses the typewriting skills she learnt in the United Kingdom at work.

1960s
Lee Edwards claims reparation for herself on the grounds of "detriment to (her) professional advancement". The proceedings drag on for years until her reparation is finally approved.

1990s
As a contemporary witness, Lee Edwards tells the story of her life in Germany and the USA. She has received multiple awards for her dedication. Jim Edwards died in 2005.
12 Ocotber 2022
Lee Edwards dies near Los Angeles.


Liesel Carlebach Comic

2021

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Liesel Carlebach Comic, Page 1 and 2 © Ilknur Kocer


Liesel Carlebach Comic in English

2021

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Liesel Carlebach Comic in English, Page 1 and 2 © Ilknur Kocer


Liesel Carlebach Comic

2021

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210324_Carlebach_S.3u4.jpg
Liesel Carlebach Comic, Page 3 and 4 © Ilknur Kocer


Liesel Carlebach Comic in English

2021

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Liesel Carlebach Comic in English, Page 3 and 4 © Ilknur Kocer


Liesel Carlebach Comic

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Liesel Carlebach Comic, Page 5 and 6 © Ilknur Kocer


Liesel Carlebach Comic in English

2021

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Comic Carlebach_S5_6.jpg
Liesel Carlebach Comic in English, Page 5 and 6 © Ilknur Kocer


Liesel Carlebach Comic

2021

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210324_Carlebach_S7u8.jpg
Liesel Carlebach Comic, Page 7 and 8 © Ilknur Kocer


Liesel Carlebach Comic in English

2021

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Liesel Carlebach Comic in English, Page 7 and 8 © Ilknur Kocer


School-leaving certificate from the Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule, 20 December 1938

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© The Hessian State Archives, HHStAW, Best. 518 Nr. 10679, courtesy of the family


School-leaving certificate from the Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule, 20 December 1938

Liesel Carlebach attended the girls’ secondary school at the Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule. As a child, she was initially unaware of the rise in anti-Semitism, because “my friends were Jewish, the pupils, the teachers were all Jewish”.

The November Pogroms of 1938 became a turning point for the family. Liesel’s father Moritz Carlebach was deported to Buchenwald, where he spent several weeks; here he met his son Emil, who had been incarcerated by the Nazis in 1934. Emil urged his father to get Liesel out of Germany.

In March 1938, Liesel left Germany with a Kindertransport to England.



Lee Edwards talks to Jesko Bender about the most important memento of her mother, 17 May 2021

17 May 2021

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© German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of Lee Edwards


Lee Edwards talks to Jesko Bender about the most important memento of her mother, 17 May 2021

Liesel’s mother hid jewelry in Liesel’s suitcase before the train left. To this day, this jewelry is the most important memento of her mother for Lee Edwards.



Last telegram from Sophie Carlebach to her
daughter Liesel, 6 May 1942

Telegram, 6 May 1942

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© The Hessian State Archive, HHStAW, Best. 518 Nr. 10077, courtesy of the family

Last telegram from Sophie Carlebach to her daughter Liesel, 6 May 1942

The farewells from her father and mother were forever. Shortly after Liesel’s departure, Moritz Carlebach died of the after-effects of his incarceration. Afterwards, Sophie Carlebach tried to get her son out of the country – without success.

By then, the Nazis had turned the house in Gaußstraße into a “ghetto house” in which Jews had to live in an extremely confined space.

At the beginning of May 1942, Sophie Carlebach sent one last telegram to her daughter. She was deported to Poland immediately afterwards. It is not known when or where she died.





Certificate from the Technical College in Coventry, 1943

Coventry, United Kingdom

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© The Hessian State Archives, HHStAW, Best. 518 Nr. 10679, courtesy of the family


Certificate from the Technical College in Coventry, 1943

In England, Liesel quickly had to learn how to stand on her own two feet. Rather than going back to school, she trained in typewriting and shorthand – activities with which she was later to earn her living.

After the couple with whom she initially lived left Coventry in the wake of the bombing raids, Lee – as she was now known – moved in with a neighbour. Lee helped out with the housework, and the neighbour helped her learn shorthand in return.



Silver dish from the household of Liesel Carlebach’s parents

Silver

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© Private property, courtesy of the family

Silver dish from the household of Liesel Carlebach’s parents

Just after the end of the war, Lee returned to Germany as an employee of the U.S. Army. In Frankfurt, she came into close contact with her brother Emil for the first time in more than 13 years.

During her time in Frankfurt, she also met her former nanny Trina Henrich. Over the years, Trina had kept a suitcase filled with objects which Sophie Carlebach had entrusted to her. The silver decorations on display here also came from her parents’ apartment. Lee Edwards suspects that her brother had obtained these items after the war.





Marriage certificate of Lina Liese Carlebach and Arnold James Edwards, 1 March 1947

1 March 1947, Frankfurt am Main

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Marriage certificate of Lina Liese Carlebach and Arnold James Edwards © The Hessian State Archives, courtesy of the family


Special honour of the County of Ventura for Lee Edwards, 1 February 2019

1 February 2019, Ventura County, USA

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Special honour of the County of Ventura for Lee Edwards, 1 February 2019

However, Lee and Jim Edwards did not want to stay in Germany and decided to emigrate to the USA. They have been living there since 1952.

Lee Edwards frequently tells her story in discussions with contemporary witnesses, e.g. in Frankfurt in 1998 and 2017. In the USA, she has been honoured for telling young people about her experiences.



Report on Lee Edwards being honored as “Woman of valor” in the community newspaper of the Jewish Federation of Ventura County. 2019

2019

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Report of the award of Lee Edwards as “Woman of valor” © Private property, courtesy of the family


Lee Edwards’ thoughts on the Kindertransporte memorial in Frankfurt, April 2020

April 2020

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© Private property, courtesy of Lee Edwards


Lee Edwards’ thoughts on the Kindertransporte memorial in Frankfurt, April 2020

The erection of a memorial to the Kindertransporte that left from Frankfurt means a great deal to Lee Edwards, not least because it reminds her of Trina Henrich.

Transcription: Lee Edwards’ thoughts on the Kindertransporte memorial in Frankfurt, April 2020

Pg. 1:
4.2020
The "Orphan Carousel" to be erected in Frankfurt in memory of the Kinder-Transport is very touching.

I was one of those Kinder. I left Frankfurt in March 1939 For Coventry England. I was 15 years old & never saw my parents again.

While I cannot remember if I ever used a Carousel as a child, my clearest memory is that of my “Nanny" who cared for me until the law forbid "Aryans" to work for Jews.

Trina Henrich “Nina“ to me – proved to be move loyal to my family than any relative could have been.

When I returned to Frankfurt in 1946 working for the U.S. Occupation Army, I found she had kept a large suitcase my mother entrusted to her before she was murdered in poland.

Pg. 2:
The suitcase was full of bed linen, table cloths, & silver knives, forks, spoons etc.

She kept this suitcase all during the war. She must have suffered towards the end. She could have sold or bartered the contents for food. She had no idea if she would ever see any of us again.

My brother who had survived Buchenwald & I had a tearful reunion with my super loyal “Nina".

My husband and I showed our gratitude by helping to support her as much as we could until she died.

I will never forget my “Nina".





Lee Edwards in conversation with Jesko Bender, 17 May 2021

2021

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© German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of Lee Edwards


Liesel Carlebach Slideshow

Slideshow by David Barth, 2021

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Kurzbeschreibung
(1) Liesel Carlebach, 1930s
(2) Liesel Carlebach (left) with friends at a Jewish swimming pool in Niederrad, 1930s
(3) Lee Edwards with her brother Emil Carlebach in Frankfurt am Main, ca. 1946/1947
(4) Lee Edwards with her husband Jim and her brother Emil Carlebach in Frankfurt am Main, ca. 1946/1947
(5) Wedding photo of Lee Carlebach and Jim Edwards, 1 March 1947
(6) Lee Edwards with Trina, ca. 1947
(7) Lee Edwards during a visit to Frankfurt am Main, 2017
Diashow_Edwards_EN.gif

02

Josef Einhorn, later Josef Karniel



Josef Einhorn

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Short Biography of Josef Einhorn, later Karniel

Address: Frankfurter Kinderhaus der Weiblichen Fürsorge e.V. (children’s home run by a women’s welfare organisation), Hans-Thoma-Straße 24; Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt, Röderbergweg 87
School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule
Route: 1939 Palestine

28 November 1925
Josef Einhorn is born in Frankfurt am Main, the third of five children. His parents Philipp and Sabine Einhorn, née Bletz, come from Poland but have been living in Frankfurt for many years. Because of his mother’s illness, Josef grows up in various children’s homes.

August 1935
Josef Einhorn witnesses the anti-Semitic uprising against the German Jewish children’s home in Diez an der Lahn, where he is living. Afterwards, he is taken to Frankfurt with a number of other children. The Jewish Orphanage becomes his new home.

November 1938
After the November pogroms, the couple Isidor and Rosa Marx, who are in charge of the Jewish Orphanage, try to get the children out of the country.

April 1939
Josef Einhorn and 34 other boys travel by train from Frankfurt to Munich, then onward to Trieste. On 19 April, the group boards a ship to Haifa, where they arrive on 25 April. The children are accompanied by Isidor Marx.

From 1939
Josef Einhorn lives in Kfar HaNoar HaDati children’s village, near Haifa. He receives a school education and works in agriculture. He writes regular letters to his father, who is living in Belgium. His father dies in 1939. He has no news of his mother and siblings. Later, he finds out that his entire family was murdered except for his sister Betty.

1943
Josef Einhorn leaves Kfar HaNoar HaDati children’s village and lives in various kibbutzim. He trains as a joiner.

End of 1946
Josef Einhorn settles permanently in the kibbutz Ein HaNetziv. Here he meets Ruthi Goldmann, also a survivor of the Shoah, whom he later marries.

18 November 1952
Josef Einhorn and Ruthi Goldmann marry and become the parents of six children.

1953
Josef Einhorn takes a Hebrew name and from then on calls himself Josef Karniel.

1955
Josef Karniel applies for reparation on the grounds of “detriment to (his) professional advancement”; his application is approved.

1970
Josef Karniel has a heart attack and suffers from poor health from then on.

1980s
Josef Karniel writes short accounts testifying to his experiences as a child.

3 June 1993
Josef Karniel dies of heart disease.


Josef Einhorn Comic

2021

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Josef_Einhorn_S1u2.jpg
Josef Einhorn Comic, Page 1 and 2 © Birgit Weyhe


Josef Einhorn Comic in English

2021

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Comic Einhorn_S1_2.jpg
Josef Einhorn Comic in English, Page 1 and 2 © Birgit Weyhe


Josef Einhorn Comic

2021

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Josef Einhorn Comic, Page 3 and 4 © Birgit Weyhe


Josef Einhorn Comic in English

2021

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Josef Einhorn Comic in English, Page 3 and 4 © Birgit Weyhe


Josef Einhorn Comic

2021

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Josef Einhorn Comic, Page 5 and 6 © Birgit Weyhe


Josef Einhorn Comic in English

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Josef Einhorn Comic in English, Page 5 and 6 © Birgit Weyhe


Josef Einhorn Comic

2021

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Josef Einhorn Comic, Page 7 and 8 © Birgit Weyhe


Josef Einhorn Comic in English

2021

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Josef Einhorn Comic in English, Page 7 and 8 © Birgit Weyhe


My Home, Josef Karniel‘s memories of his childhood in the Israelitisches Waisenhaus, 1984

Josef Karniel, 1984

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My Home, Josef Karniel‘s memories of his childhood in the Israelitisches Waisenhaus, 1984

In 1984, Josef Einhorn wrote down his memories of his childhood in the Israelitisches Waisenhaus, a Jewish orphanage. The account clearly shows the sense of security imparted by the orphanage, which was directed by the couple Rosa and Isidor Marx. Josef “Seppel” Einhorn liked acting and writing
stories.

Transcription: My Home

Pg. 1:
My Home
At first I’d like to point out, that due to the conditions in my family I spent my whole childhood – at least as far as I can remember – in children homes. Prior to my coming to the Waisenhaus I was in two different homes. This fact enables me to value even more the special feelings of belonging to a family at the Waisenhaus, due to the outstanding qualities of the Marx Family. I have no bad feelings whatsoever for those other Homes, but the Waisenhaus was in fact my only “Home” until I started my own family here in the Kibutz. A real Home is the place where you feel that you “belong”, and just this was the feeling that the Marx Family succeeded to bestow on us. Therefore it’s not by chance that they asked us to call them by the names Uncle and Aunt Rosa: first of all to give us the feeling of belonging to their family, but on the other end not by taking the place of our real parents.
Uncle used to share with us his

Pg. 2:
thoughts and worries during meals especially on Shabat. He read to us letters he received from Alumni (how mad he got at those who used in their letters the formal Mr. and Mrs. Marx instead of Uncle and Aunt Rosa!) He used to share with us proudly the progress of his own children, Hansi at the Gagern-Spital, Esther working in the Kindergarten and Mo preparing himself for Palestine at the Bachad-Centre.

Sometimes he asked to those meals guests who talked to us, like the Youthleader who told us about the Misrachi-Conference at which he participated in Palestine. Although his position didn’t allow him to take sides, Uncle didn’t make any secrets to where his sympathies lies: with the religious Zionist movement building the Jewish State. He was very proud of Alumni who joined Kibutz Rodges.

The climax of his blessed activity came after the Kristall-Nacht. With the help of Mrs. Solot-Wiener he sent letters and Memorandums to every part of the World in order to rescue children from Germany.

Pg. 3:
After he succeeded in sending groups of children to other European countries, lines of people arrived at his office asking for help in rescuing their children. He persuaded the House of Rothschild to finance the maintenance of children at Kfar Hanoar Hadati, after which he got those precious Certificates for 35 children. It was my luck to be one of those he brought to Palestine a few months before the war.

There is no doubt at all that he couldn’t have done all this without the help and understanding of his wife Aunt Rosa. All the burden of managing the big household fell on her shoulders. Throughout the day she was on her feet supervising the work in the kitchen, housecleaning and the laundry. Until late at night she was mending our clothing.

But what was even more important for us, she succeeded to maintain a personal contact with everyone, and even more so after we left Germany. Knowing how late in the evening she was working, she nevertheless found the time to continue

Pg. 4:
the contact by writing to everyone a personal letter. In one of her letters she told me how much she misses me, but that the arrival at the Home of my younger brother David helped her to get over her longing. I remember our Farewell in the “Gute Stube”. We went in one after another and she blessed us tearfully with great excitement on both sides. Such was the kind of real family ties which existed between her and all “her” children.

We knew that she had possibilities to get out of Germany in time, but she refused to leave “her” children (amongst them my younger brother and sister) and they went together to places from where there was no coming back…
Aunt Rosa used to toy with the idea that like Kibutz Rodges, Alumni will found their own settlement in the future. Until now there is no written document about the Waisenhouse and nothing is known about Aunt Rosa’s sacrifice. At least let us pay tribute to the most unforgettable and unselfish people who dedicated themselves to the noble cause of bringing happiness to children who had no home of their own.           

Josef Karniel
(Seppel Einhorn)





Issue of the children’s magazine Der kleine Israelit with a short story by Josef Einhorn, 18 November 1937

18 November 1937, Frankfurt am Main

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Issue of the children's magazine "Der kleine Israelit" with a short story by Josef Enihorn © Private property, courtesy of the family


List for the emigration of 35 children from the Israelitisches Waisenhaus, Frankfurt am Main, 29 January 1939

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Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association, Dossier Plans and Maps VI, c 1934 Acc no: PIC 6/6/2 Photo: Waddesdon Image Library, courtesy of Waddesdon Rothschild Collections

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© Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association, Photo: Waddesdon Image Library, courtesy of Waddesdon Rothschild Collections


List for the emigration of 35 children from the Israelitisches Waisenhaus, Frankfurt am Main, 29 January 1939

During the night of 9 to 10 November 1939, the police and SS forced their way into the Israelitisches Waisenhaus Jewish Orphanage. Afterwards, the Marxes made every effort to get the children out of the country. At the same time, the number of children at the orphanage continued to grow; Josef’s younger brother David also went to live there.

The Marxes managed to obtain 35 certificates allowing the holders to enter Palestine. One of them was intended for Josef. The children set off in April 1939, escorted by Isidor Marx. Travelling on board the ship Galilea, they reached Haifa on 25 April. The children lived together in Kfar HaNoar HaDati children’s village.



Child’s passport for Josef Einhorn, issued on 5 April 1938

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Child's passport for Josef Einhorn, issued on 5 April 1938 © Private property, courtesy of the family


Poem commemorating the first bar mitzvah that took place after the children’s arrival in Palestine, 1939

1939, Palestine

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© Private property, courtesy of the family

Poem commemorating the first bar mitzvah that took place after the children’s arrival in Palestine, 1939

Josef “Seppel” Einhorn was to keep his love of acting and writing poetry. Together with two other children, he wrote a poem for the first bar mitzvah in Kfar HaNoar HaDati.



Transcription: Poem commemorating the first bar mitzvah that took place after the children’s arrival in Palestine, 1939

English Translation:

babajt ha-jeladim be-kfar noar
be-kfar chassidim al ha-giwah
le-neschef schel chagigat ha-bar-mizwa ha-rischona

[In the children's home in the youth village
in a Chassidic village on a hill
To celebrate his first bar mitzvah festival
N. Stern, J. Landsberg, und J. Einhorn]

  1.  What is going on today!
    only a small celebration,
    we celebrate the bar mitzvah [Hebrew: Bar-Mizva] 
    and it is the first one here.
    … babajt ha-jeladim [Hebrew: in the children's village]
  2. Not just the bar mitzvah,
    Something else was still going on;
    The week is not over yet
    In which we moved into the new house.
    … babajt ha-jeladim
  3. It was great work
    the children and their Memshalah [Hebrew: in government/rule]
    and comes to visit, then they say
    Ben Uri is certainly a genius
    … babajt ha-jeladim

German Translation:

babajt ha-jeladim be-kfar noar
be-kfar chassidim al ha-giwah
le-neschef schel chagigat ha-bar-mizwa ha-rischona

[Im Kinderheim im Jugenddorf
in einem Chassidendorf auf dem Hügel
Zur Feier des ersten Bar-Mizwa-Feste
N. Stern, J. Landsberg, und J. Einhorn]

  1.  Was ist eigentlich heut los!
    eine kleine Feier bloß,
    den bar-mizwa [hebr. Bar-Mizwa] feiern wir
    und es ist die erste hier.
    … babajt ha-jeladim [hebr. im Kinderheim]
  2. Nicht nur die bar-mizwa bloß,
    etwas andres war noch los;
    Den noch ist die Woch’ nicht aus
    In der wir zogen in’s neue Haus.
    … babajt ha-jeladim
  3. Große Arbeit war es ja
    den Kindern und ihrer Memschalah [hebr. im Regierung/Herrschaft]
    und kommt Besuch dann sagen sie
    Ben Uri ist doch ein Genie.
    … babajt ha-jeladim




Letter from Mendel Einhorn to his brother Josef, 18 May 1939

18 May 1939, Rotterdam, Holland

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© Private property, courtesy of the family


Letter from Mendel Einhorn to his brother Josef, 18 May 1939

Josef’s family was scattered far and wide; his father lived in Belgium, his aunt in Amsterdam, his brother Mendel in Rotterdam. However, they managed to stay in contact by letter. The letters also indicate that Josef sent a stream of postcards from Kfar HaNoar HaDati. The letters which Josef received testified to the increasing difficulties experienced by his relatives.



Letter from Philipp Einhorn to his son Josef, 6 June 1939

6 June 1939, Brussels, Belgium

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Letter from Philipp Einhorn to his son Josef, 6 June 1939 © Private property, courtesy of the family

Transcription: Letter from Philipp Einhorn to his son Josef, 6 June 1939

English Translation:

Pg. 1:
Brussels, 6.6.39

My dear Josef
To my regret, I got the card that I wrote to you sent back to me 4 weeks ago because I did not write your address correctly. So, Aunt Selma gave me your address so that I can write it again. Dear Seppel, I wish you lots of luck for your new home and I ask that you tell me about everything you are doing and what you do all day like you did in Frankfurt. There is also something from dear grandma and from [illegible]. So, everything that you could not write to me from Frankfurt can be written, should I send you an international stamp, which you can exchange for another stamp at the post office. Betti wrote to me today that she thinks you are quite determined to visit this summer. Also, I think leSchana haba'a beJeruschalajim [Hebrew: next year in Jerusalem].
Dear grandma has written me that I should send you all of her greetings. Dear Josef, ask and write me the same answer. Also, give me a letter for your brother Meni so that I will send it to him in Holland

Pg. 2:
beacuse he can’t come to me in Belgium and I can’t do anything about it. It isn’t going well in Holland. Dear Josef, various children from Frankfurt have told me that you can be a good actor. Maybe you can send me some funny jokes. I send you my heartfelt greetings. Your father.

I now live in another appartment
My address is now

F. Einhorn rüe Angleterre N69
Brussels Midi

Also, send me your Hebrew address

German Translation:

S. 1:
Brüssel le 6.6.39

Mein lieber Josef
zu meinen bedauern habe ich die Karte die ich dir seit 4 Wochen geschrieben habe zurück erhalten weil ich nicht richtig deine Adresse geschrieben habe so hat mir Tante Selma deine Adresse angegeben das ich dir wieder schreiben kann l. Seppel ich wünsche dir sehr viel Glück zu deiner Neuer und richtigen Heimat und bitte ich dich das du mir über alles wie es dir geht und was du den ganzen Tag machst auch wie es dir in Frankfurt die ganze zeit geganen ist auch etwas von der l. Oma und von [unleserlich] also alles was man mir von Frankfurt nicht schreiben konnte jezt mir schreiben sollst ich sende dir eine Internazionale Briefmarke welche du dort auf den Postamt für eine Briefmarke eintauschen kannst Betti hatt mir heute geschrieben das sie denkt dich ganz bestimt diesen Sommer zu besuchen auch ich denke auch leSchana haba'a beJeruschalajim [hebr. nächstes Jahr in Jerusalem]
Die l. Oma hat mir geschrieben das ich dir jedes mall von ihr ein Grus schicken soll lieber Josef bitte dich und schreibe mir gleich Antwort auch schüke mir auch ein Briefchen für deinen Bruder Meni so werde ich ihn nach Holland nachsenden den er

S. 2:
Kann zu mir nach Belgien nicht kommen und ich kann dagegen nichts machen es geht in Holland nicht gut lieber Josef verschiedene Kinder aus Frankfurt haben mir gesagt das du ein gutter Schauspieler sein kannst vileicht kannst du mir a par schöne Wizen schicken
ich gruesse Dich herzlich Dein Vater

ich wohne jetzt in einer anderen wohnung
meine Adresse ist jezt

F. Einhorn rüe Angleterre N69
Brüssel Midi

schreibst mir auch Deine Hebreische adresse





Postcards from "Aunt Selma“ to Josef, 11 September 1939

Selma Blumensohn, 11 September 1939, Amsterdam, Holland

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Postcards from "Aunt Selma" to Josef, 11 September 1939 © Private property, courtesy of the family

Transcription: Postcard from “Aunt Selma” to Josef, 11 September 1939

English Translation:

Pg. 1:
A'dam of 11.9.39

My dear Josef. Just today I am coming to answer your lovely card. I am glad that you are doing so well and that you can even make a desk. Have you already taught violin? Dear grandma still lives with uncle together on Main Street 23. She can’t write to you, but she is doing as well as she usually is. Write to her regularly. Bertel cannot write to her at all, and I have to find every post, so I can no longer send double cards because it’s too much for me. Papa and Menni are doing as well as they usually are. Bertel is really happy. Menni is now with uncle Jakob. Last time I heard,

Left: Herbert is now with Manfred in Enschede. 

Pg. 2: 
Visited this week. They have what they need. Manfred is now going back to school in Enschede after Jontef. Henni is now in housekeeping school. What does your Irvit do? Can you already communicate well? We wish you a really good and healthy New Year and that Jontef will be good. Heartfelt greetings and kisses from me and Hanni, from your Aunt Selma 
Blumensohn
Amsterdam Jeher Street 5

German Translation:

S. 1:
A’dam den 11.9.39.

Mein lieber Josef. Erst heute komme ich dazu Dir Deine lb. Karte zu beantowrten. Es freut mich dass es Dir so gut geht, u. dass Du gar schon einen Schreibtisch basteln kannst. Hast Du auch schon Geigen unterricht? Die lb. Oma wohnt noch mit Onkel zusammen in der Main str. 23. Schreiben kann sie Dir nicht, es geht ihr wie immer. Schreibe Du ihr regelmässig. Bertel kann ihr gar nicht schreiben, u. muss ich jede Post vermitteln, deshalb kann ich auch keine Doppelkarten mehr schicken, denn es reicht mir kaum. Papa u. Menni geht es wie immer. Bertel gefällt es gut. Menni ist jetzt mit Onkel Jakob zusammen. Ich habe sie vorige

Links: Herbert Haas ist jetzt mit Manfred in Enschede.

S. 2:
Woche besucht. Sie haben was sie brauchen. Manfred geht jetzt nach Jontef wieder in die Schule in Enschede. Henni ist jetzt in der Haushaltungsschule. Was macht Dein Ivrit. Kannst Du Dich schon gut verständigen? Wir wünschen Dir noch ein recht gutes u. gesundes neues Jahr u. einen guten Jontef. Nun noch herzl. Grüsse u. Küsse von mir u. Hanni von Deiner Tante Selma
Blumensohn
Amsterdam Jeher str. 5





Torah scroll belonging to Josef Karniel

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© Private property, courtesy of the family

Torah scroll belonging to Josef Karniel

Josef Karniel’s family still keeps his memory green with a number of items that also serve as reminders of his escape. The exact story behind these objects is not known and cannot be reconstructed; however, they symbolise the Jewish religion and culture which Josef brought with him from Frankfurt.
Josef Karniel decided to continue living in the kibbutz community after World War II ended. He settled permanently in Ein HaNetziv, where he also met his wife Ruthi Goldmann and started a family of his own. Josef Karniel became one of the kibbutz’s most important figures and performed various administrative and organisational functions.




Sefer Kinnot (book of laments) belonging to Josef Karniel

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Sefer Kinnot (book of laments) belonging to Josef Karniel © Private property, courtesy of the family


Josef Einhorn Slideshow

Slideshow by David Barth, 2021

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(2-7) Private property

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Kurzbeschreibung
(1) Josef Einhorn, probably in the mid-1930s.
(2) Josef Einhorn (center) at a Chanukkah celebration in the Israelitisches Waisenhaus, Frankfurt am Main, 1937
(3) Josef Einhorn in the children's village Kfar HaNoar HaDati, 1940s
(4) Wedding photo of Josef Einhorn and Ruthi Goldmann, 1952
(5) Josef Karniel (back right) at a meeting, probably in Kibbutz Ein HaNetziv, date unknown
(6) Josef Karniel and Ruthi Goldmann at a Purim celebration, date unknown
(7) Josef Karniel and Ruthi Goldmann, date unknown
Diashow_Einhorn_EN.gif

03

Lili Fürst, later Lili Schneider



Lili Fürst

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German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library / Zeichnung: Illi Anna Heger,

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Short Biography of Lili Fürst, later Lili Schneider

Address: Gärtnerweg 6
Schools: Varrentrappschule, Philanthropin
Route: 1939 Sweden

26 June 1925
Lili Fürst is born in Frankfurt am Main, the only child of Sally and Ida Fürst, née Wertheimer. Her parents are flour merchants whose business ceases operations in December 1938.

1936
Sally and Ida Fürst try in vain to take their family to the USA.

1938
The family decides to send Lili to safety with a Kindertransport to Sweden.

January 1939
Lili Fürst travels by train to Berlin and reaches the border crossing at Trelleborg on 17 January. From there, she travels onward to Malmö. The Jewish merchant family Lempert takes Lili in as their foster daughter; she has to do housework and look after the family’s newborn child. Lili and her parents stay in close contact by letter.

August 1940
After completing elementary school, Lili Fürst begins training as a milliner. In 1942, this becomes her profession.

6 October 1941
Lili’s surviving correspondence with her parents ends. Sally and Ida Fürst are deported to the Litzmannstadt (Łódz´) ghetto on 19 October 1941. It is not known when or where they were murdered.

From 1939
Lili Fürst and her parents try to emigrate to the USA and hope to be reunited there. Lili herself takes action and writes to her uncle, who has been living in the USA since 1939. However, all attempts are in vain.

1945
Lili Fürst leaves her foster family.


1947
Lili Fürst marries pattern maker Willi Schneider. She becomes a Swedish citizen. Her son Jan is born in 1951, her daughter Yvonne in 1956. When the children are older, Lili Schneider works for a clothing company as a sales clerk.

From 1955
Lili Schneider applies for reparation for herself and her murdered parents. The process drags on until into the 1960s before reparation is finally approved.

14 March 1972
Lili Schneider dies in a plane crash.



Lili Fürst Comic

2021

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IlliAnnaHeger_Lili_S1u2.jpg
Lili Fürst Comic, Page 1 and 2 © Illi Anna Heger


Lili Fürst Comic in English

2021

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Lili Fürst Comic in English, Page 1 and 2 © Illi Anna Heger


Lili Fürst Comic

2021

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IlliAnnaHeger_Lili_S3u4.jpg
Lili Fürst Comic, Page 3 and 4 © Illi Anna Heger


Lili Fürst Comic in English

2021

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Lili Fürst Comic in English, Page 3 and 4 © Illi Anna Heger


Lili Fürst Comic

2021

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IlliAnnaHeger_Lili_S5u6.jpg
Lili Fürst Comic, Page 5 and 6 © Illi Anna Heger


Lili Fürst Comic in English

2021

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Illi Anna Heger

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Comic Fürst_S5_6.jpg
Lili Fürst Comic in English, Page 5 and 6 © Illi Anna Heger


Lili Fürst Comic

2021

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Illi Anna Heger

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IlliAnnaHeger_Lili_S7u8.jpg
Lili Fürst Comic, Page 7 and 8 © Illi Anna Heger


Lili Fürst Comic in English

2021

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Illi Anna Heger

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Lili Fürst Comic in English, Page 7 und 8 © Illi Anna Heger


Lili Schneider’s reparation file, first page, 17 September 1955

17 September 1955

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© The Hessian State Archives, HHStAW, Best. 518 Nr. 11598, courtesy of the family


Lili Schneider’s reparation file, first page, 17 September 1955

The file gives an insight into the handling of Lili Schneider’s reparation claim. It documents the bureaucratic procedure during which Lili Schneider had to endure repeated humiliation but also found support and ultimately won the fight against the injustice she had suffered. The file also serves as a substitute record, since the personal information and other documents it contains facilitate the reconstruction of events for which no other evidence exists.


Statement made by Lili Schneider during the reparation proceedings, Malmö, 13 September 1955

Lilli Fürst, 13 September 1955, Malmö

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Statement made by Lili Schneider during the reparation proceedings © The Hessian State Archives, courtesy of the family


School report from the Varrentrappschule for
Lili Fürst, Frankfurt am Main, 14 March 1939

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© Estate of Lili Fürst, EB 2020/004, German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family

School report from the Varrentrappschule for
Lili Fürst, Frankfurt am Main, 14 March 1939

There are more than just 18 years between these documents. The report from the Varrentrappschule was issued in 1939, while the affidavit dates from 1957. Between these two documents, there was also a change in perspective. As a Jew, Lili was unable to stay at the Varrentrappschule and switched to the Philanthropin. During the reparation proceedings, Lili Schneider had to testify under oath to her forced exclusion from the school.





Lili Fürst’s affidavit regarding her attendance of the Philanthropin, Malmö, 7 August 1957

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Lili Fürst's affadavit regarding her attendance of the Philanthropin © HHSTAW, courtesy of the family


Lili Fürst’s hand luggage, Frankfurt am Main, 30 December 1938

30 December 1938, Frankfurt am Main

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© Estate of Lili Fürst, EB 2020/004, German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family


Lili Fürst’s hand luggage,
Frankfurt am Main, 30 December 1938

The words “All used” are written next to the 133 items on this list. This note was important, since only objects that had been used up until the time of emigration could be taken out of the country. These are therefore the items with which Lili Fürst began her life in Stockholm.
Only useful objects are listed. Presumably Lili’s parents did not want to fill the limited space in her suitcase with toys, photographs or memorabilia. Lili was accepted by a foster family, but her time there was not happy. She left the foster family as soon as she could, but stayed in contact with them.


Sally and Ida Fürst to Lili, Frankfurt am Main, 7 April 1939

7 April 1939, Frankfurt am Main

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© Estate of Lili Fürst, EB 2020/004, German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family

Sally and Ida Fürst to Lili, Frankfurt am Main, 7 April 1939

Lili and her parents wrote to each other several times a week. Only the parents’ letters have survived; Lili’s own voice can only be heard indirectly.
The family tried not to lose their closeness despite the geographical distance between them. Lili sent her parents photographs, for example. “Dear Lili, your picture is universally admired, people can’t believe that you are already so tall + grown up – personally I still see you in my mind as you were when you went away,” wrote Lili’s mother in her last letter. She also referred to her daughter’s choice of profession: “Dear Lili, do you also wear one of those hats that turns down all the way round like children used to wear?”



Transcription: Sally and Ida Fürst to Lili, Frankfurt am Main, 7 April 1939

English Translation: 

Pg. 1: 

Frankfurt 7.4.39

My dear Lili! 
Your lovely letter already came here last week, but I still had no time to answer you & since the Norwegian didn’t go home & you can’t visit because of that, I was in no hurry to write to you. I hope that you are doing well & you have survived the little sea trip well, & that you look at the beautiful city. It should be so beautiful in Copenhagen! Dear Lili, your last letter was so much nicer than the previous ones & let’s hope that you always write happily. The mother of Mrs. Sjöberg was with us on Sunday and told us about you & her daughter. – Next week, when you are back home, you will also get the Easter eggs. Have you recieved the package with Linzertorte? Mr. Scheidt & uncle Lulu play cards every evening & Mr. Scheidt donated his winnings to you. I bought you Easter eggs with it. I have already announced it to you, so please do the same and thank Mr. Scheidt. – Please tell Ms. Lempert that I thank her for her letter and will answer it next week. – How was Ilse’s visit? Dear child, are you always orderly and friendly around your foster parents? Do you learn diligently & keep your things in order? Will you write us often if you need something, like toiletries & such? I wish you happy

Pg. 2:

days & send you, as well as Mrs. Lempert, warm greetings, and to you, a firm kiss
Your mom.

I also send you heartly greetings as well as Mr. + Mrs. Lempert, especially the mother, Mrs. Lempert. I wish you happy holidays + lots of fun + a firm kiss
Your papi

German Translation:

S. 1:

Frankfurt, 7.4.39.

Meine liebe Lili!
Dein lb. Brief kam schon letzte Woche hier an, aber ich hatte noch keine Zeit, Dir zu antworten & da der Norweger nicht nach Hause gefahren ist & Dich deshalb nicht besuchen kann, so hatte es auch keine Eile Dir zu schreiben. Ich hoffe, dass es Dir gut geht & Du die kleine Seereise gut überstanden hast, schau Dir nur die schöne Stadt gut an, es soll doch so schön sein in Kopenhagen! Liebe Lili, Dein letzter Brief war viel netter als die vorhergehenden & hoffen wir, dass Du nun immer so vergnügt schreibst, die Mutter von Frau Sjöberg war Sonntag bei uns & erzählte uns von Dir & ihrer Tochter. – Die nächste Woche, wenn Du wieder zu Hause bist, bekommst Du nachträglich die Ostereier, hast Du eigentlich das Paketchen mit Linzertorte erhalten? Herr Scheidt & Onkel Lulu spielen jeden Abend Karten & hat Dir Herr Scheidt seinen Gewinn gespendet ich habe Dir Ostereier davon gekauft, dich ich Dir bereits avisierte, also sobald Du dieselben hast, bedanke Dich bitte bei Herrn Scheidt. – Sage bitte Frau Lempert, dass ich für ihren Brief danke & ihn nächste Woche beantworten werde. – Was hatte Ilse für Besuch? Liebes Kind, bist Du auch immer ordentlich und freundlich gegen Deine Pflegeeltern? Lernst Du fleissig & hältst auch Deine Sachen in Ordnung? Schreibe uns recht oft hast Du etwas nötig, Toilettenartikel oder dergleichen? Nun wünsche ich Dir noch recht vergnügte

S. 2:

Tage & sende Dir, sowie Frau Lempert herzliche Grüße, Dir selbst einen festen Kuss
Deine Mutti.

Auch ich sende Dir recht herzliche Grüße, sowie Herr + Frau Lempert, sowie, der Frau Mutter, der Frau Lempert. Noch vergnügte Feiertage + viel Vergnügen + einen festen Kuß
Dein Papi





Sally and Ida Fürst to Lili, Frankfurt am Main, 5 July 1941

5 July 1941, Frankfurt am Main

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Sally and Ida Fürst to Lili, 5 July 1941 © German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family

Transcription: Sally and Ida Fürst to Lili, Frankfurt am Main, 5 July 1941

English Translation:

Front side:

Frankfurt a/M 5. July 1941.

Sender: Sally Fürst. Gärtnerweg. 6. Frankfurt.a/M.
Recipient: Lili Fürst. Kastellgatan. 4. Malmö. (Sweden)

Dear Lili! We have recieved your lovely letter from 27 June on the 2nd of the month with thanks + are glad that you are healthy + good things. We also celebrated your birthday in our thoughts + talked a lot about you + also thought about how often we are in your thoughts. Dear Lily, I always wanted to ask you how tall you are, put a book or board on your head, make a small line + then take (illegible, crossed out) a one centimter mass + use it to inform us. I also inform you that papers in Stuttgart, as I heard from an acquaintance whom I commissioned to ask, have arrived there. I have written it down + have to wait for the answer. I am of the same opinion as you, be sure to take advantage of the time to learn a practical profession, you can drive over the great water. In this sense, should I write to H. Lempert? If you need money to pay Lempert for board + lodging, I will write to Herbert or Carl. How much will you need per month? Yesterday, Mrs. Sjöberg’s mother was with us. She is healthy + sends many greetings. Dear Lili, you must think, one who drives slowly also reaches to the goal, nothing can be forced. Now let it continue to go well. Think, after rain, sunshine comes + many greetings + kissed by your papi

From America, we have heard nothing for a long time. Even Schnurmann, who writes every week, stops when you write. Greetings to all, by the way. At the end of this month, do not forget to congratulate Uncle Theo, Aunt Lina + Schnurmann for their brithdays.

Back side:

Dear Lili!

                With your lovely letter, we were, as always, very happy. Only this time, we expressed a bit of melancholy. I would have liked to help you celebrate your birthday better, but unfortunately, it is not possible,  & you must console yourself  & wait for another time. Hopefully then we can celebrate it festively. Also, the time you spend with Mr. L Altern? will pass & , as we hope, you will get an apprenticeship soon so that you can be more satisfied. Dear Lili, you wrote last time you would be angry with Carl because he has not sent the monetary bond, but since you are in possession of it, I assume you mean ours. Why

[Sender: Sally Fürst. Gärtnerweg.6. Frankfurt.a/M.
Recipient: Lili Fürst. Kastellgatan.4. Malmö. (Sweden)]

does it take so long to get your visa? Is there no prospect that you will be able to get it earlier? Have you heard if a ship is leaving Sweden? Mother Mrs. S? is embarassed beacuse she has no message from her children in the USA & from those who have just left. You should ask Mrs. S. if she has heard anything. Ruth’s mother wrote us that she had heard from you. What date was Ruth’s letter? It has also now become summer by us, but I do not get away much & do not notice much of it. If you bathe, be careful, do not get into the water when you are hot. Do you still have company, or are all of your peers gone? Now write again quite soon & take today for the closest greetings & kisses from your

Mom. 

The other day I forgot to write, Aunt Marta from Marburg had greeted you and congratulated you on your birthday!

German Translation:

Vorderseite:

Frankfurt a/M 5. Juli 1941.

Absender: Sally Fürst. Gärtnerweg. 6. Frankfurt.a/M.
Empfänger: Lili Fürst. Kastellgatan. 4. Malmö. (Schweden)

Liebe Lili! Wir haben deinen l. Brief v 27 Juni am 2. ds Mts mit Dank erhalten + freuen uns daß du G. L gesund + guter Dinge bist. Auch wir haben deinen Geburtstag in Gedanken mitgefeiert + haben sehr viel von dir gesprochen + auch gedacht, wie wir sehr oft in Gedanken bei dir sind. Schon immer wollt ich dich fragen l Lili wie groß du bist, stelle dich einmal an die Wand, lege ein Buch od. Brett auf den Kopf, mache einen kl Strich + nehme sodann [unleserlich, gestrichen] einen Zentimetermasse + teile uns das mit. Sodann teile ich dir mit, daß uns Papiere in Stuttgart, wie ich durch einen Bekannten hörte, den ich beauftragte zufragen, dorten angekommen sind. Ich habe hingeschrieben + muß die Antwort abwarten. Ich bin derselben Meinung wie du, unbedingt die Zeit ausnützen, um einen pracktischen Beruf zuerlernen, bist du über das gr Wasser fahren kannst. Soll ich in diesem Sinn an H. Lempert einmal schreiben? Wenn du Geld gebrauchst, um Lempert für Kost + Logis zubezahlen, so werde an Herbert od Carl schreiben, wieviel gebrauchst du denn im Monat? Gestern war Frau Sjöberg Mutter bei uns, sie ist gesund + läßt vielmals grüßen. Liebe Lili du mußt denken, wer langsam fährt kommt auch zum Ziel, es läßt sich Nichts erzwingen. Nun lasse es dir weiter gut ergehen, denk nach Regen, kommt Sonnenschein + sei vielmals gegrüßt + geküßt von deinem Papi

Von Amerika haben wir lange Nichts gehört, selbst Schnurmann, der doch jede Woche schreibt, hat ausgesetzt Wenn du schreibst, grüße sie Alle, im übrigen hat Ende diesen Monat Onkel Theo, Tante Lina + Schnurmann Geburtstag vergesse nicht zu gratulieren

do.

Rückeite:

Liebe Lili!

                    Mit Deinem lb. Brief haben wir uns wie immer sehr gefreut, nur sprach dieses Mal ein bischen Wehmut heraus, ich hätte ja gerne etwas dazu beigetragen, daß Du Deinen Geburtstag besser hättest feiern können, aber leider geht es doch nicht & so mußt Du Dich eben trösten auf ein andermal, hoffentlich können wir ihn dann festlich begehen. Auch die Zeit, die Du bei Herrn L. Altern? verbringst, wird herumgehen & wenn Du dann, wie wir hoffen, bald eine Lehrstelle bekommst, so wirst Du auch zufriedener sein. – Lb. Lili, Du schriebst‘ das letzte Mal Du wärst böse auf Carl, weil er die Bürgschaft nicht geschickt habe, Du meinst doch unsere, denn ich nehme an, daß Du im Besitz solcher bist. Warum

 [Absender: Sally Fürst. Gärtnerweg.6. Frankfurt.a/M.
Empfänger: Lili Fürst. Kastellgatan.4. Malmö. (Schweden)]

dauert es eigentlich so lange, bis Du Dein Visum erhältst? Ist eben gar keine Aussicht, dass Du fortkommen kannst? Hast Du nichts gehört, ob ein Schiff von Schweden abfährt? Frau S. Mutter? ist in Verlegenheit, weil sie von ihren Kindern in U.S.A. & auch von denen, die neulich weg sind, keine Nachricht hat, Du sollst Frau S. fragen, ob sie etwas gehört habe. Ruth’s Mutter schrieb uns, dass sie von Dir gehört habe, von welchem Datum war Ruth’s Brief? Bei uns ist es nun auch Sommer geworden, ich komme allerdings nicht viel fort & merke nicht viel davon. Wenn Du badest sei vorsichtig, gehe nicht, wenn Du erhitzt bist, ins Wasser. Hast Du noch Gesellschaft, oder sind all Deine Altersgenossinen fort?

Nun schreibe recht bald wieder & nimm für heute die innigsten Grüße & Küsse von Deiner

Mutti.

Neulich hatte ich vergessen zu schreiben, Tante Marta aus Marburg ließ Dich grüßen & Dir zum Geburtstag gratulieren!





Sally and Ida Fürst to Lili, Frankfurt am Main, 6 October 1941

Sally and Ida Fürst, Letter, 6 October 1941, Frankfurt am Main

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Sally and Ida Fürst to Lili, 6.10.1941 © German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family

Transcription: Sally and Ida Fürst to Lili, Frankfurt am Main, 6 October 1941

English Translation:

Frankfurt. a/M. 6 October 1941

Sender: Sally Fürst. Gärtnerweg 6 Frankfurt.a/M.

Recipient: Lili Fürst. Kastellgatan 4. Malmö. Sweden

Dear Lili! We have received your lovely letter from 26 September on the 3rd of the month in good health. We also wish to give heartfelt thanks to you as well as Mrs. Lempert for your heartfelt lines and wishes. In the meantime, our card that has been sent to little Marianne has also arrived. Betty and Rosemarie are not engaged yet. That’s not too fast because it always takes two. Who do you mean by Annemarie? Should it be Anneliese Neidhardt? We almost never see her, but she has grown up and still goes to school. In the next letter, write in detail what you do when you teach. I have always wanted to ask you if you have the opportunity to read a good German book in your free time, for example, in the evening. This is certainly necessary so that you don’t forget your mother tongue & that you still use it, especially when writing letters. Now dear Lili, let everything continue to go well, stay healthy, write again soon & be greeted warmly & kissed by your papi

[Vertical at the edge:] Many greetings to the Lempert family + Mrs. S., enclosed is the return slip!


Dear Lili!

             We had to wait a litte longer for your lovely letter this time, but we want to excuse it now that you are back in business & thus have less time. I am glad that you like it, hopefullly it also stays that way, just always make an effort & do everything on time. What are the people’s names? – Have you celebrated the birthday of little Marianne yet? Has she gotten many gifts? – Dear Lilli, your picture is universally admired, people can't believe that you are already so tall & grown up – personally I still see you in my mind as you were when you went away. The little flower often asks about you, even your old teacher often inquires about how you are doing. Mrs. S' mother has just been here, she tells us , among other things, that Uncle SchXXXmann is with Mia? In the USA, so now they are staying in New York for the whole time. We have not heard from him for a long time. – Dear Lili, do you also wear one of those hats that turns down all the way round like children used to wear?—Here, the weather is still quite nice, sometimes quite warm, but I am still home a lot.—Now greet the Lempert family for me & thank you, on my behalf, for the letter. May you be intimately greeted & kissed by your mom.

German Translation:

Frankfurt. a/M. 6. Oktober 1941

Absender: Sally Fürst. Gärtnerweg 6 Frankfurt.a/M.
Empfänger: Lili Fürst. Kastellgatan 4. Malmö. Schweden

Liebe Lili! Wir haben deinen l. Brief v. 26.9. am 3. ds bei guter Gesundheit erhalten u. sagen dir, sowie der Frau Lempert, für Iihre freundlichen Zeilen u. Wünsche, den herzlichsten Dank. Inzwischen wird unsere Karte an die kl. Marianne auch angekommen sein. Betty und Rosemarie sind noch nicht verlobt, das geht so schnell nicht, dazu gehören immer Zwei. Erstere ist noch bei Weil, aber als Gehülfing tätig, und Rosemarie ist ebenfalls in ihrer Lehrstelle weiter tätig, sie ist aber nicht gewachsen, aber dicker ist sie geworden. Wen meinst du mit Annemarie? Soll wohl Anneliese Neidhardt sein, dieselbe sehen wir fast nie, ist aber groß geworden und geht noch zur Schule. Schreibe in den nächsten Brief mal ausführlich, was du in der Lehre alles tun mußt. Ich wollte schon immer dich fragen, ob du dort Gelegenheit hast, in deiner freien Zeit, so z.B. des Abend‘s, ein gutes deutsches Buch zulesen, es ist dies unbedingt nötig, dadurch verlernt man seine Muttersprache nicht und bildet, besonders beim Briefeschreiben. Nun liebe Lili lasse es dir weiter recht gut ergehen, bleibe gesund, schreibe bald wieder und sei auf das herzlichste gegrüßt und geküßt dein Papi

[Vertikal am Rand:] Viele Grüße an Familie Lempert + Frau S. Retourportoschein beiliegend!

 

Liebe Lili!

         Auf Deinen lb. Brief haben wir dieses Mal etwas länger warten müssen, wir wollen es aber damit entschuldigen, daß Du nun wieder im Geschäft bist & dadurch weniger Zeit hast. Ich freue mich, dass es Dir gefällt, hoffentlich bleibt es auch so, gebe Dir nur immer Mühe & mache alles pünktlich. Wie heissen denn die Leute? – Habt Ihr nun inzwischen den Geburtstag von kl. Mariannchen gefeiert? Ist es recht beschenkt worden? – Lb. Lili, Dein Bild wird allgemein bewundert, die Leute können es garnicht fassen, dass Du schon so groß & erwachsen bist & ich selbst sehe Dich immer noch so wie Du abgereist bist. Das Blümelein fragt sehr oft nach Dir, auch Dein alter Lehrer erkundigt sich oft, wie es Dir geht. Soeben war Frau S.‘ Mutter hier, sie erzählt uns unter anderem, dass sich Onkel SchXXXmann mit Mia? in U.S.A. beteiligt habe, also nun für ganz in New York bleibt, von ihm selbst haben wir länger nichts gehört. – Liebe Lili trägst Du auch solch einen Hut?, der ringsherum herabgeschlagen ist, d.h. wie ihn Kinder früher trugen? – Hier ist das Wetter noch recht schön, manchertags recht warm, trotzdem bin ich viel Zu Hause. – Nun grüße mir Fam. Lempert & bedanke Dich in meinem Namen für den Brief, sei Du selbst aufs innigste gegrüßt & geküsst von Deine Mutti.





Leaving certificate for Lili Fürst, Malmö, 8 June 1940

8 June 1940, Malmö, Sweden

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© Estate of Lili Fürst, EB 2020/004, German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family

Leaving certificate for Lili Fürst, Malmö, 8 June 1940

Lili went to school in Malmö and left in June 1940. In history, drawing, art appreciation and handwork, she obtained the grade “Passed with merit / good”. She also received a “very good” for conduct and tidiness. She became a milliner and later worked for a clothing business. It was then that she met pattern maker Willi Schneider, whom she married in 1947. They went on to have two children.





Lili Fürst Slideshow

Slideshow by David Barth, 2021

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Kurzbeschreibung
(1) Sally and Ida Fürst, undated
(2) Lili Fürst around age two in Frankfurt am Main
(3) Lili in the summer of 1933 with an umbrella, Frankfurt am Main
(4) Sally and Lili Fürst, 1935
(5) Lili Fürst, Malmö, 2. August 1944
(6) Lili with Marianne Lempert, 1945
(5) Wedding photo of Lili and Willi Schneider, Malmö, 27. November 1947
(7) Lili with her husband in Frankfurt am Main, 1954
Diashow_Fürst_EN.gif

04

Renate Adler, later Renata Harris



Renate Adler

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Short Biography of Renate Adler, later Renata Harris

Address: Gervinusstraße 22
School: Philanthropin
Route: 1939 UK, from 1960s Austria

26 June 1929
Renate Adler is born in Frankfurt am Main, the only child of Alfred and Margarete Adelheid Adler, née Golisch. She grows up in a liberal, prosperous household.

August 1938
The father applies for U.S. entry visas for the whole family. Initially, these are not granted.

November 1938
The father is arrested during the November pogroms and deported to Buchenwald. With the help of an English sponsor, he is released in January 1939 and is able to emigrate to the United Kingdom in April that same year.

End of August 1939
Renate Adler leaves Frankfurt with a Kindertransport. She travels via Hook of Holland to Liverpool Street station in London. On arrival, she spends two days with her father before being lodged in a boarding school. Afterwards, she only sees her father a few more times before his death on 19 October 1953.

Until 1942
Renate Adler regularly receives loving letters from her mother. The outbreak of war prevents Margarete Adler from leaving the country. On 11 June 1942, she is deported from Frankfurt and murdered in Sobibor extermination camp.

1939–1943
Renate Adler attends a small private school in Selsey (Sussex), south-west of London. She now calls herself Renata.

From 1943
Renata Adler attends the prestigious St. Paul’s School in London.

July 1946
Renata Adler leaves school and starts a course of training at a children’s home. From 1947, she works at a hotel in London.

1950
Renata Adler begins training as a stewardess and works in this profession until her marriage in 1952. Afterwards, she works as a tour guide.

November 2011
Renata Harris travels to Hook of Holland for the dedication of a memorial to the Kindertransporte. This trip marks the beginning of an intensive period of reflection on her life; she becomes an active contemporary witness.

Until today
Renata Harris visits Frankfurt am Main several times and frequently discusses her experiences during talks by contemporary witnesses. Renata Harris now lives in Seefeld, Tyrol.



Renate Adler Comic

2021

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Rena_fertig_S1u2.jpg
Renate Adler Comic, Page 1 and 2 © Hamed Eshrat


Renate Adler Comic in English

2021

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Comic Adler_S1_2.jpg
Renate Adler Comic in English, Page 1 and 2 © Hamed Eshrat


Renate Adler Comic

2021

Aus der Sammlung von

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Hamed Eshrat

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Rena_fertig_S3u4.jpg
Renate Adler Comic, Page 3 and 4 © Hamed Eshrat


Renate Adler Comic in English

2021

Aus der Sammlung von

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Hamed Eshrat

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Comic Adler_S3_4.jpg
Renate Adler Comic in English, Page 3 and 4 © Hamed Eshrat


Renate Adler Comic

2021

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Rena_fertig_S5u6.jpg
Renate Adler Comic, Page 5 and 6 © Hamed Eshrat


Renate Adler Comic in English

2021

Aus der Sammlung von

German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German Exile Archive

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Hamed Eshrat

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Comic Adler_S5_6.jpg
Renate Adler Comic in English, Page 5 and 6 © Hamed Eshrat


Renate Adler Comic

2021

Aus der Sammlung von

German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library

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Hamed Eshrat

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Rena_fertig_S7u8.jpg
Renate Adler Comic, Page 7 and 8 © Hamed Eshrat


Renate Adler Comic in English

2021

Aus der Sammlung von

German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library

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Hamed Eshrat

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Comic Adler_S7_8.jpg
Renate Adler Comic in English, Page 7 and 8 © Hamed Eshrat


Renata Harris talking to pupils at the Ernst-Reuter-Schule 1, 2 June 2014

2014

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Collection of Project Jewish Life in Frankfurt am Main, courtesy of the family, Klaus Hartenfeller and Project Jewish Life in Frankfurt am Main

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© Collection of Project Jewish Life in Frankfurt am Main, courtesy of the family, Klaus Hartenfellers and Project Jewish Life in Frankfurt am Main

Renata Harris talking to pupils at the Ernst-Reuter-Schule 1, 2 June 2014

Since 2011, Renata Harris has given numerous talks about her life. Some of these talks have been recorded and give an impression of Renata Harris as a contemporary witness. Her narrative style encourages pupils to ask a variety of questions, all of which receive ready answers. Her talks switch between German, English, and sometimes also Tyrolean. The pupils, she says, should understand that although there is an elderly lady sitting in front of them, while she is telling her story, she is only ten years old.





Suitcase in which Renate Adler’s belongings were transported to the United Kingdom

Suitcase, 1930's

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Suitcase in which Renate Adler's belongings were transported to the United Kingdom © German Exile Archives 1933-1945, courtesy of the family


List of Renate Adler’s belongings, Frankfurt am Main, August 1939

List, August 1939, Frankfurt am Main

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The Hessian State Archives

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The Hessian State Archives, HHStAW Bestand 519/3 Nr. 22004, courtesy of the family

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List of Renate Adler's belongings, Frankfurt am Main, August 1939 © The Hessian State Archives, courtesy of the family


Renate Adler’s doll, a standing doll manufactured by the doll factory Puppenfabrik Bruno Schmidt from 1920 onwards

Puppenfabrik Bruno Schmidt, Toy, 1920, Waltershausen

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© German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family

Renate Adler’s doll, a standing doll manufactured by the doll factory Puppenfabrik Bruno Schmidt from 1920 onwards

On her journey to the United Kingdom, Renate was accompanied by the doll she had had since she was small. In the United Kingdom, Renate, the child from Frankfurt, turned into English-speaking Renata. She says that she suddenly grew older on arrival in the United Kingdom. She kept the doll with her throughout this change; Renata Harris still owns it today. Her school reports from this time regularly praise her learning progress and show how well she coped with her new life. She won a book about “British Birds” as a prize for taking part in a reading competition at St. Paul’s school.





School report for Renata Adler, Selsey, autumn 1942

Certificate, autumn 1942, Selsey, United Kingdom

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The Hessian State Archives

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The Hessian State Archives, HHStAW Bestand 518 Nr. 77275, courtesy of the family

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School report for Renata Adler, Selsey, autumn 1942 © The Hessian State Archives, courtesy of the family


Little book about ornithology for Renata Adler, London, July 1943

July 1943

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Little book about ornithology for Renata Adler © German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family


Letter from Margarete Adler to Renate Adler, Frankfurt am Main, 12 December 1939

Letter, 12 December 1939, Frankfurt am Main

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Private property

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Private property, courtesy of the family

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© Collection of Angelika Rieber, courtesy of the family


Letter from Margarete Adler to Renate Adler, Frankfurt am Main, 12 December 1939

Renata regularly received loving letters from her mother in Frankfurt. They testify to her mother’s solicitude and her longing to see her “Goldkind” again.

Transcription: Letter from Margarete Adler to Renate Adler, Frankfurt am Main, 12 December 1939

English Translation:

Pg. 1:
Tuesday, 12.XII.1939

By beloved Rena!
Today you should hear again from your mom, after dad indicated so much beauty & love from you – I am so happy when I hear something about you & especially when it is something good. It gives me a lot of pleasure that you learn so diligently and make good progress; just keep it up, my dear child! –The other night I dreamed of you, my little Butschili; but unfortunatley far too little. – you will soon be too small. – Meanwhile, you have also become bigger & stronger, & all your clothes will be too small for you soon. – I would have liked to have sent you something nice, but unfortunaltely, this is not possible. – And Walemar reads all the collected parrot journals. –

Pg. 2:
Today I also wrote to Goitin’s; Do you still think of Rutli sometimes? And your mom? – Mrs. Hanauer was with us the other afternoon & she is also very happy that you are so diligent. – Now you will soon have holidays my dear Renale and be by the sea with your lovely Ms. Martin. Be quite kind & grateful for so much good & love. – Dad would also have been very happy with your visit, but maybe you saw each other underneath. – I am always with Hans & Liesel on Sundays & we always talk about you, my little treasure. – Your little children’s table and the little armchair will be given to Tina’s little Herta at Christmas; she is so cute and says to your green wooden snake: "Gelle, the snake does not bite me." – Yes, Renate, last year we lit the lights together. Hopefully dear god will bring us together quite soon. You, my beloved child and your lovely dad & then we will be quite happy & satisfied. In close and embracing love, your faithfulness kisses you.

Mammi

German Translation:

S. 1:
Dienstag 12. XII. 39

Mein geliebtes Renalein!
Heute sollst Du wieder mal von Deiner Mutti hören, nachdem mir Pappi so viel Schönes & Liebes von Dir berichtete – Ich bin so glücklich, wenn ich etwas über Dich höre & besonders dann, wenn es was Gutes ist. Es macht mir recht viel Freude, dass Du so fleissig lernst & gute Fortschritte machst; halte es nur weiter so, mein liebes Kind! – Neulich nachts träumte ich von Dir, mein kleines Butschili; aber leider viel zu wenig. – Unterdes bist Du auch größer & kräftiger geworden, & all Deine Kleider werden Dir bald zu klein sein. – Gern hätte ich Dir etwas Schönes geschickt, aber leider geht dies nicht. – Und all die gesammelten Papageien-Zeitungen liest Waldemar. –


S. 2:
Heut habe auch mal an Goitin's geschrieben; denkst Du noch manchmal an Rutli? Und an Deine Mutti? – Frl. Hanauer war neulich nachmittag bei uns & auch sie freut sich sehr, dass Du so fleissig bist. – Nun hast Du bald Ferien mein liebes Renale & willst mit Deinem lb. Frl. Martin an die See. Sei ja recht lieb & dankbar für so viel Gutes & Liebes. – Papi hätte sich auch sehr mit Deinem Besuch gefreut, aber vielleicht habt Ihr Euch unterdeß gesehen. – Ich bin Sonntags immer bei Hans & Liesel & und dann sprechen wir immer von Dir, meinem kl. Schatz. – Deinen kl. Kindertisch & den kl. Sessel werde ich zu Weihnachten der kl. Herta von Tina schenken; sie ist doch so niedlich & sagt zu Deiner grünen Holzschlange: „Gelle, die Slange beisst mich nicht.“ – Ja, Renate, voriges Jahr haben wir die Lichtchen noch zusammen angezündet. Hoffentlich führt uns der lb. Gott recht bald zusammen, Dich, mein geliebtes Kind & Deinen lb. Papi & dann werden wir recht glücklich & zufrieden sein. In inniger Liebe umarmt & küsst Dich Deine treuliebende
Mammi.





Advertisement in the Association of Jewish Refugees journal for the dedication of the memorial in Hook of Holland, November 2011

Advertisement, November 2011

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© German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, ZB 93249


Advertisement in the Association of Jewish Refugees journal for the dedication of the memorial in Hook of Holland, November 2011

It was at the dedication of a memorial to the Kindertransporte in Hook of Holland in November 2011 that Renata Harris first met a group of around 70 people “with whom I had a great deal in common. That was a strange feeling.” This event also marked the start of her contact with Frankfurt, which was to intensify over the years that followed.



Renata Harris Slideshow

Slideshow by David Barth, 2021

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Kurzbeschreibung
(1) Renate Adler with her doll, beginning of the 1930s
(2) Renate Adler in the Frankfurt Zoo, mid-1930s
(3) Renate Adler with her father Alfred Adler in a swimming pool, ca. 1936
(4) Renate Adler with her mother Margarete Adelheid Adler, June 1939
(5) Renate Adler, June 1939
(6) Renata Harris at an event in the German Exile Archives 1933-1945, 20 November 2018
Diashow_Harris_EN.gif

05

Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno, later Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno



Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno

2021

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Short Biography of Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno, later Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno

Address: Feldbergstraße 25
Schools: Ludwig-Richter-Schule, Anna-Schmidt-Schule
Route: 1939 UK, 1955 Germany

2 December 1925
Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno is born in Frankfurt am Main, the eldest of the three children of Franz and Helene Calvelli-Adorno, née Mommsen.

1929–1933
The family is living in Dortmund. Following the enactment of the Gesetzes zur Wieder­ herstellung des Berufsbeamtentums (Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service), Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno’s father loses his job as a regional court judge. The family returns to Frankfurt.

November 1938
The parents decide to send their two eldest children Elisabeth and Ludwig to safety with a Kindertransport.

27 June 1939
Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno and her brother Ludwig travel by train to Hook of Holland, from there by ferry to Harwich, then onward by train to Liverpool Street station in London.

1939
The brother and sister are fostered by a Mr. and Mrs. Hulford. The father had met the couple during a reconnaissance trip. They live in Purley, near London. After the outbreak of World War II, the foster parents give the children up; they are separated and move from one residence and caregiver to another.

January 1940
Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno is enrolled in a Catholic private school; one year later, she switches to a state secondary school.

June 1940
Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno is fostered by a Mr. and Mrs. Hayes. Ludwig joins her in the summer of 1942.

1943
Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno leaves school and works as a secretary.

September 1945
She resumes her correspondence with her parents.

1947
Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno and her brother Ludwig receive a visit from their parents. They pay a return visit to Germany the following year.

1950–1955
Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno returns temporarily to Frankfurt. She meets Kurt Reinhuber and marries him in 1955. She studies economics at one of the London universities, graduating in 1953.

1955
Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno returns to Germany permanently. She lives near Frankfurt with her husband and three children.

End of the 1950s
Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno applies for reparation on the grounds of “detriment to (her) education”. She has to fight to be recognised as a persecuted person, but her reparation is finally granted.

1960s
Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno starts to become active in local politics.

2000s
As a contemporary witness, Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno frequently talks about what she has experienced during her life.


10 June 2016
Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno dies in Oberursel.



Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic

2021

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Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic, Page 1 and 2 © Sascha Hommer


Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic in English

2021

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Comic Reinhuber_S1_2.jpg
Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic in English, Page 1 and 2 © Sascha Hommer


Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic

2021

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Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic, Page 3 and 4 © Sascha Hommer


Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic in English

2021

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Comic Reinhuber_S3_4.jpg
Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic in English, Page 3 and 4 © Sascha Hommer


Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic

2021

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Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic, Page 5 and 6 © Sascha Hommer


Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic in English

2021

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Comic Reinhuber_S5_6.jpg
Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic in English, Page 5 and 6 © Sascha Hommer


Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic

2021

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Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic, Page 7 and 8 © Sascha Hommer


Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic in English

2021

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Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Comic in English, Page 7 and 8 © Sascha Hommer


School report issued by the Anna-Schmidt-Schule for Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno, 20 December 1938

Certificate, 20 December 1938, Frankfurt am Main

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© Estate of Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno, German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family


School report issued by the Anna-Schmidt-Schule for Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno, 20 December 1938

Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno attended the Anna-Schmidt-Schule from 1935. Her memories of her school days were very positive. An interim report she received in December 1938 commends her as a “hard-working student”.



Gym bag embroidered with the initials "E C-A" (Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno)

Gym bag

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Gym bag embroidred with the initials "E C-A" (Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno) © German Exile Archives 1933-1945, courtesy of the family


Child’s passport for Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno, Frankfurt am Main, 25 March 1939

Passport, 25 March 1939

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Child's passport for Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno © German Exile Archives 1933–1945, courtesy of the family


Sticker for an item of luggage which Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno took with her
on the Kindertransport, 27 June 1939

Luggage sticker, 27 June 1939, Frankfurt am Main

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© Estate of Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno, German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family


Sticker for an item of luggage which Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno took with her
on the Kindertransport, 27 June 1939

Elisabeth’s suitcase is already addressed “c/o Hulford”. Her father had met the Hulfords on a exploration reconnaissance trip to the United Kingdom and persuaded them to act as Elisabeth and Ludwig‘s foster parents. Mr. Hulford was therefore already waiting for the children when they arrived at Liverpool Street Station in London.



Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno to her parents, Purley, United Kingdom, 31 July 1939

Letter, 31 July 1939, Purley, United Kingdom

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© Estate of Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno, German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family

Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno to her parents, Purley, United Kingdom, 31 July 1939

Just one month after her arrival in the United Kingdom, Elisabeth switched to English. For a long time, Elisabeth maintained a close correspondence with her parents and sister; however, this became more difficult during the war and ceased altogether during its final months.



Transcription: Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno to her parents, Purley, United Kingdom, 31 July 1939

Pg. 1:

31.7.39.

Dear Bear and dear Father Swan!

I’ll try to write in English and to look in no dictionary. I hope, the letter will be allright, but I don’t think so. I don’t really know what I shall or can do the whole day. Today I wrote something about my Miez. Mrs. Hulford said, it were very good. – Jack is in his bed again, for Saturday he was at the pictures with Barbara, although he felt rotten. To-day in the afternoon Aunt Malchen rang up. I’ll go Wodansday to her. Johann will pick me up at Waterloo-Station. – Yesterday there were nothing. We had breakfast a little earlier than 11 o’clock. After breakfast Mr. and Mrs. H. and I we made the dinner till about 1 o’clock. We cleaned a little the rooms. In the afternoon we talked and I read Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But it is to difficult, because almost all words are American slang. Just I began, “The Water Babies” by Kinsley, but I don’t know yet, what I shall read.

Pg. 2:

To-day I got a nice letter from Helga. I answered and wrote to Miss R. too. Brian wrote, that the weather were dreadful, and that they can’t even make fire and cook their meals properly. In the morning I bought something for Jack and fetched his medecin. – Mrs. Hulford must drink stout with milk for her rheumatismus. Now she goes to another treatement. The doctor there told her to eat everything and to eat lot. For every pound, which she get more, he’ll give her a penny. I was with her in this rheumatismus-clinic twice. – Perhaps Hulford’s will buy this house in Caterham because they say, that they would like more room. But they must spend a lot of money to make it in order again. It is a very nice house, very big. There is also a very big garden and I think with a tennis-lawn. – Mr. Hulford told Jack and me exercises for the feet and for the

 Pg. 3:

whole body. We must do them every morning and every evening. I do it since a little more than a week. – Till now we haven’t got a domestique servant. But Mrs. H. rang up this lady who did very much for us – for our journey and perhaps she knows any girl to come. – Just Mr. Hulford brought my tea. I drink tea almost during the whole day. Sometimes I cook it. I help rather much in the kitchen. In the morning and in the evenings I wash up. If Jack is not in his bed, he helps of course.

I don’t nothing more to write.

Kind regards also to Gathi, Ria and Mr. Loveridge

Your Elisabeth.

 

Please answer in German! Just in the radio American-dancing. I heard never more awful music.





Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno to her parents, Rickmansworth, United Kingdom,
12 September 1945

Letter, 12 September 1945

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© Estate of Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno, German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family


Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno to her parents, Rickmansworth, United Kingdom, 12 September 1945

After the war ended, Elisabeth wrote about what had happened in the meantime. She had changed not only her language but also her name, now signing herself Jane. She calls her parents “Mum and Dad”, fully aware of how strange this sounded after such a long time apart.

Transcription: Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno to her parents, Rickmansworth, United Kingdom, 12 September 1945 

Pg. 1:

                                                                                                                       On Top of a Cliff,
                                                                                                                             North Devan.

                                                                                                               12th September, 1945

Dear Mum and Dad,
You can imagine what I felt like when I read the letter I had been waiting for for the last six years and to see your own dear handwriting again. Many times I have mentally written this, my first letter to you, but I still don’t know what to say or where to start. I am calling you “Mum and Dad” because that is how Lux and I have always called you and I hope it will not sound strange to you.
It seems a lifetime ago since I saw the Bear standing on the stallion; he came onto the platform because we had forgotten something and

 Pg. 11:
[S. 10: We had to return from the] cliff I started this letter on and now I am sitting by a logfire finishing it and watching the rain when I get stuck. I hope we shall be back in time to see Mr. Pinelas; I should love to hear more about you.
I am so happy that you are all safe and united in a flat with the old furniture (I remember it very well) and that Dad is a judge again. I am glad, too, that Opa is near you; please give my love to him and lalla.

With very much love,
Jane.





From the reparation file of Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno, 19 May 1958

19 May 1958

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© The Hessian State Archives, HHStAW, Best. 518 Nr. 48260, courtesy of the family

From the reparation file of Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno, 19 May 1958

At the end of the 1950s, Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno had to fight to be recognised as a persecuted person and obtain reparation, since – according to the reparation authority – "second-degree Mischlinge (persons of mixed race) are not considered to have been collectively persecuted”.





British and German passport for Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno

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© Estate of Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno, German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family


British and German passport for Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno

Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno has dual German and British citizenship since she feels that she belongs to both countries.



Interview with Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno at the Bildungsstätte Anne Frank, 2013

2013

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© Collection from Project Jewish Life Frankfurt am Main, courtesy of the family and Project Jewish Life Frankfurt am Main

Interview with Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno at the Bildungsstätte Anne Frank, 2013

Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno later gave contemporary eyewitness accounts of her experiences with the Kindertransport and the time she was separated from her parents.





Letter from Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno to the CDU, Oberursel, 8 January 1986

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© Estate of Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno, German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of the family

Letter from Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno to the CDU, Oberursel, 8 January 1986

Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno joined the CDU and became actively involved in local politics. In 1986, she bravely spoke up and sent letters to prominent members of the CDU, calling on them to distance themselves from Hermann Fellner. Fellner had gained notoriety for his anti-Semitic remarks during a debate on reparation payments.





Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno Slideshow

Slideshow by David Barth, 2021

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Kurzbeschreibung
(1) Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno at 13 years old
(2) Franz and Helene Calvelli-Adorno with young children Ludwig und Agathe
(3) Elisabeth and Ludwig on their farewell visit with their grandparents Helene and Louis Calvelli-Adorno, 1939
(4) Elisabeth and Ludwig Calvelli-Adorno‘s farewell to Frankfurt am Main, 1939
(5) Elisabeth and Ludwig Calvelli-Adorno in Purley, United Kingdom, with their foster father Mr. Hulford (left) and his son, 1939
(6) Elisabeth and Ludwig Calvelli-Adorno with Mr. Hayes, Rickmansworth, United Kingdom, ca. 1945
(7) The Calvelli-Adorno family, ca. 1948/49
(8) Elisabeth, Ludwig and Agathe Calvelli-Adorno, ca. 1948
(9) Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno, 2015
Diashow_Reinhuber_EN.gif

06

Karola Ruth Siegel, later Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer



Karola Ruth Siegel

2021

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Short Biography of Karola Ruth Siegel, later Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Address: Brahmsstraße 8
School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule
Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1945 Palestine, 1950 France, 1956 USA

4 June 1928
Karola Ruth Siegel is born in the Franconian village of Wiesenfeld, the only child of Julius and Irma Siegel, née Hanauer. She grows up in an Orthodox Jewish household in Frankfurt. Her father runs a wholesale haberdashery business.

16 November 1938
After the November pogroms, her father is arrested and deported to Dachau concentration camp. He is released in February 1939.

5 January 1939
Karola Siegel travels by train via Basel and Rorschach to Heiden in the Swiss canton of Appenzell, where she is lodged in Wartheim children’s home. As a refugee, she is only permitted to remain for a limited period. Karola Siegel attends the local school and later completes a course of training as a housekeeper.


29 October 1941
Karola Siegel receives a message from relatives telling her that her parents have been deported. She is given an address for her parents in the Litzmannstadt (Łódz´) ghetto, but writes to them there in vain

1945
After the end of World War II, the young people are required to move on. In August 1945, Karola Siegel emigrates to Palestine, where she initially lives in a kibbutz.

1947–1948
During the Arab-Israeli conflict, Ruth Siegel joins the underground organisation Haganah. She is seriously wounded when a shell explodes.

1950
Ruth Siegel marries and lives in France for part of the time. She works at a Zionist nursery school and starts studying psychology at the Sorbonne.

From 1953
Ruth Siegel requests reparation for herself, her murdered parents and her murdered grandmother. The process concludes in the mid-1960s and she is granted reparation.

1956
Ruth Siegel emigrates to the USA with her second husband. Her daughter is born in 1957.

1959
Ruth Siegel concludes her study of sociology with a Master’s degree at the New School for Social Research.

1961
Ruth Siegel marries Manfred Westheimer. Their son is born in 1963.

1970
Doctoral degree at Columbia University. In 1972, she becomes an Assistant Professor in New York. Ruth K. Westheimer works in teacher training and trains as a sex therapist.

From 1980
Ruth K. Westheimer is given her own radio programme; her own television programme follows two years later. She becomes famous as “Dr. Ruth”.

1987
Publication of her autobiography All in a Lifetime.

2007
Ruth K. Westheimer resumes her German citizenship while keeping her U.S. American citizenship.

Until today
Ruth K. Westheimer lives in New York City.



Karola Siegel Comic

2021

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Karola Ruth Siegel Comic, Page 1 and 2 © Magdalena Kaszuba


Karola Siegel Comic in English

2021

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Karola Ruth Siegel Comic in English, Page 1 and 2 © Magdalena Kaszuba


Karola Siegel Comic

2021

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Magdalena Kaszuba

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Karola Ruth Siegel Comic, Page 3 and 4 © Magdalena Kaszuba


Karola Siegel Comic in English

2021

Aus der Sammlung von

German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Magdalena Kaszuba

Zum Objekt >>

Comic Westheimer_S3_4.jpg
Karola Ruth Siegel Comic in English, Page 3 and 4 © Magdalena Kaszuba


Karola Ruth Siegel Comic

2021

Aus der Sammlung von

German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Magdalena Kaszuba

Zum Objekt >>

Dr.Ruth_Seite_05u6_fertig.jpg
Karola Ruth Siegel Comic, Page 5 and 6 © Magdalena Kaszuba


Karola Siegel Comic in English

2021

Aus der Sammlung von

German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Magdalena Kaszuba

Zum Objekt >>

Comic Westheimer_S5_6.jpg
Karola Ruth Siegel Comic in English, Page 5 and 6 © Magdalena Kaszuba


Karola Ruth Siegel Comic

2021

Aus der Sammlung von

German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Magdalena Kaszuba

Zum Objekt >>

Dr.Ruth_Seite_07u8_fertig.jpg
Karola Ruth Siegel Comic, Page 7 and 8 © Magdalena Kaszuba


Karola Siegel Comic in English

2021

Aus der Sammlung von

German Exile Archives 193-1945 of the German National Library

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Magdalena Kaszuba

Zum Objekt >>

Comic Westheimer_S7_8.jpg
Karola Ruth Siegel Comic in English, Page 7 and 8 © Magdalena Kaszuba


Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer in conversation with Sylvia Asmus, 4 December 2020

4 December 2020

Aus der Sammlung von

German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Zum Objekt >>

© German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer


Health certificate for Karola Ruth Siegel, issued by Dr. Arnold Merzbach,
2 December 1938

Dr. Arnold Merzbach, 5 January 1939, Frankfurt am Main

Aus der Sammlung von

Swiss Federal Archives

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Swiss Federal Archives, J2.55#1000/1246#140*Az. 2.2 -8, Weie – Win; Dossier Ruth Westheimer 1933 - ca. 1948, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Zum Objekt >>

Westheimer_Neu_1_Gesundheitsbescheinigung_S1.png
© Swiss Federal Archives, Dossier Ruth Westheimer 1933 – ca. 1948, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer


Health certificate for Karola Ruth Siegel, issued by Dr. Arnold Merzbach, 2 December 1938

On 5 January 1939, Karola Ruth Siegel left Frankfurt am Main with a Kindertransport to Switzerland. This health certificate was essential for acceptance into the transport.



Diary of Karola Ruth Siegel, 1945

Aus der Sammlung von

Private property

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Private property, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Zum Objekt >>

Westheimer_094_Tagebuch_einband_klein.png
© Private property, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer


Diary of Karola Ruth Siegel, 1945

In Wartheim, the Swiss children’s home where she was accommodated, Karola’s diaries became her “faithful companions”. She poured everything into them that she was unable to tell anybody else: her fears, hopes and worries about her parents and grandparents.



Irma and Julius Siegel to Karola Ruth Siegel, Frankfurt am Main, 26 May 1941

Aus der Sammlung von

Private property

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Private property, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Zum Objekt >>

Westheimer_096_Brief_Irma_Siegl_1941.png
© Private property, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer


Irma and Julius Siegel to Karola Ruth Siegel, Frankfurt am Main, 26 May 1941

Karola and her parents and grandparents kept in touch by writing weekly letters. Karola’s parents picked up on what she wrote and gave her hope that they would be reunited in the future. For her birthday in 1941, Karola’s father wrote a poem, each verse of which began with the letters of her first name.

Transcription: Irma and Julius Siegel to Karola Ruth Siegel, Frankfurt am Main, 26 May 1941

English Translation: 

Pg. 1:

Frankfurt a.M., den 26 May 1941 

My dear Karola!

On Monday we received your lovely card from 18 May. We were very happy with it. The fact that you have created a diary is also a lot of fun for us. I am looking forward it reading it today. Lovely Karola, on your birthday, I send you the warmest wishes & blessings. May you grow into a capable girl & always stay healthy & satisfied. Your birthday present will follow later. It will take a while. Uncle Max also sends many warm greetings to you. Did you have the picture of your dear grandparents preserved already? On 23 May, an aunt of dear grandmother in Wiesenfeld turned 100 years old in a retirement home in Würzburg. This is the sister of my grandfather. From Mrs. Spiro, I should also send you heartfelt greetings. Your beautiful trip through the vineyards also interested us very much. I send warm wishes to the lovely Mathilde, to her new "aunt would" & for her birthday on 24 June. Now, I wish you good holidays & a happy birthday. Now you are already a big girl. Justin likes being an apprentice gardener. I send you heartfelt greetings & a firm birthday kiss from your

Loving you warmly

Mom.

Encolse a reply slip and letterhead.

Pg. 2:

To the dear birthday child!

Can you still remember,

When you started life,

Quite difficult, you have often thought,

Oh, you have given joy to many people

Live well and be satisfied,

Good luck to you

Have happy holidays and be greeted and kissed warmly

From your loving

Father

Julius

Dear Karola, called balloon!

On your 13th party, receive from me my heartfelt congratulations, especially all the best for your more distant future! Justin will write to you again soon. With the most heartfelt greetings from all of my loved ones, be especially greeted from your

Alfred [?]

My dear Karola!

I am pleased to have the opportunity to express my closet desires, which I always have for you. My heartfelt congratulations on your birthday. May the almighty continue to guard your way in life and bless you with health, joy and satisfaction. But one still must also do his/her duty and work hard. Dear Mathilda, heartfelt congratulations to her little nephew on his birthday. Many heartfelt greetings from all. Stay really healthy and have fun and be warmly greeted and kissed by your loving [illegible]

German Translation:

S.1:

Frankfurt a. M., den 26. Mai 1941

Meine liebe Karola!

Am Freitag erhielten wir Deine lb. Karte vom 18.5. Wir freuten uns herzlich damit. Auch dass Du Dir ein Tagebuch angelegt hast, macht uns viel Spaß. Ich freue mich heute schon es dann mal zu lesen. Lb. Karola zu Deinem Geburtstage sende Dir die herzlichsten Glück- & Segenswünsche. Mögest Du zu einem braven, tüchtigen Mädel heranwachsen & immer gesund & zufrieden bleiben. Dein Geburtstagsgeschenk folgt später. Es wird noch ein Weilchen dauern. Onkel Max hat auch geschrieben, viele herzliche Grüße für Dich. Hast Du das Bild von den lb. Großeltern schon erhalten? Am 23. Mai ist in Würzburg im Altersheim eine Tante von l. Oma in Wiesenfeld 100 Jahre alt geworden. Dies ist von meinem Großvater eine Schwester. Von Frl. Spiro soll ich Dich auch herzlich grüßen. Euer schöner Ausflug durch die Weinberge hat uns auch sehr interessiert. Der lb. Mathilde sende ich zu Ihrer neuen „Tante würde“ & zu ihrem Geburtstag am 24. Juni herzliche Wünsche. Nun wünsche Dir noch recht gute Feiertage & vergnügten Geburtstag. Nun bist Du schon ein großes Mädel. Justin gefällt es gut als Gärtnerlehrling. Nun sende Dir noch recht herzliche Grüße & einen festen Geburtstagskuss von Deiner

Dich herzlichst liebenden

Mutti.

 

Einen Antwortschein & Briefbogen lege bei. 

S. 2:

Dem lieben Geburtstagskinde!

K annst Du Dich doch noch entsinnen,

A ls Du das Leben tatst beginnen,

R echt schwierig hast Du oft gedacht,

O, vielen Leuten hast Du Freude gemacht.

L ebe wohl und sei zufrieden,

A uch viel Glück sei Dir beschieden.

Halte recht vergnügte Feiertage & sei herzlich gegrüßt und geküsst

von Deinem Dich liebenden

Vater

Julius

Liebe Karola genannt genannt Luftballon!

Empfange auch von mir zu Deinem 13. Wiegenfeste meine herzlichsten Glückwünsche, vor allem alles Gute für Deine fernere Zukunft! Justin schreibt Dir demnächst auch wieder. Mit den herzlichsten Grüßen von all meinen Lieben, sei besonders gegrüßt von Deinem

Alfred [?]

Meine liebe Karola!

Ich freue mich, dass ich Gelegenheit habe, meine innigen Wünsche, die ich stets für Dich habe, zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Meine herzlichste Gratulation zu Deinem Geburtstage. Möge der Allmächtige weiter Deinen Lebensweg behüten u. Dich mit Gesundheit, Freude u. Zufriedenheit segnen. Der Mensch muss aber auch seine Schuldigkeit tun u. fest mit arbeiten. Der l. Mathilde herzliche Glückwünsche zu ihrem kleinen Neffen zum Geburtstag. Von allen viele herzliche Grüße. Bleibe recht gesund u. vergnügt u. sei herzlich gegrüßt u. geküßt von Deiner Dich liebenden [unleserlich]





Index card for Karola Ruth Siegel, Schweizer Hilfswerk für Emigrantenkinder (Swiss Aid Organisation for Emigrant Children), last entry 5 October 1945

Card

Aus der Sammlung von

Swiss Federal Archives

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Swiss Federal Archives, J2.55#1000/1246#140*Az. 2.2 -8, Weie – Win; Dossier Ruth Westheimer 1933 - ca. 1948, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Zum Objekt >>

Westheimer_Neu_2_Karteikarte_Vollwaise.png
Index card for Karola Ruth Siegel © Swiss Federal Archives, courtesy of Ruth K. Westheimer

Index card for Karola Ruth Siegel, Schweizer Hilfswerk für Emigrantenkinder (Swiss Aid Organisation for Emigrant Children), last entry 5 October 1945

Switzerland did not become the children’s permanent refuge. After the war ended, they were ordered to move on.
Karola emigrated to Palestine/Israel. She was plagued by doubt and sought the path that was to take her to a different life and win her a name as “Dr. Ruth”. This was the time at which she dropped the name Karola and began using her second forename, Ruth. Since then, she has used the K. for Karola as her middle name. “It’s my past,” she says in an interview.




Questionnaire issued by the Schweizer Hilfswerk für Emigrantenkinder on 24 August 1944

Aus der Sammlung von

Swiss Federal Archives

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Swiss Federal Archives, J2.55#1000/1246#140*Az. 2.2 -8, Weie – Win; Dossier Ruth Westheimer 1933 - ca. 1948, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Zum Objekt >>

Westheimer_Neu_3_Fragebogen_Seite1+2.png
Questionnaire issued by the Schweizer Hilfswerks für Emigrantenkinder © Swiss Federal Archives, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer


Identity card for Ruth (Karola) Siegel, 16 January 1946

Aus der Sammlung von

Private property

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Private property, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Zum Objekt >>

Westheimer_098_Identidy_Card.png
Identity Card for Ruth (Karola) Siegel , 16 January 1946 © Private property, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer


Extract from the diary of Ruth K. Siegel, 20 October 1945

20 October 1945

Aus der Sammlung von

Private property

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Private property, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Zum Objekt >>

Westheimer_099_Tagebuch_1945.png
Extract from the diary of Ruth K. Siegel, 20 October 1945 © Private property, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Transcription: Extract from the diary of Ruth K. Siegel, 20 October 1945

English Translation:

Left:

Life is a fight!
Victories!
(Goethe)

But it is so hard to fight without a goal, to fight without love and understanding.

When I come back to Ajanoth, I want to be strong now. I do not want to let Michel notice anything, even if it goes wrong!

I must go; I must fight, but …

 Right:

Ajanoth, 20 October 1945

 I don’t know, everything is grey and empty, I am not alive, I am just vegetating. Eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep and then it starts all over again. Not to find energy, not even to learn, although I know I have to be able to do it to get to my goal. Saul correctly says: I am coming out into life for the first time and … I, who always thought I had a certain attitude toward life, capitulated, crashed at the first difficulty. How can that happen?

Not even in my free time do I work on anything, but sometimes I read. The Chevrah here gives me nothing, nothing at all. Do I give her something? No; because everyone is on a much higher level than I am, for example, Eveline. These are not empty inferiority complexes, but I really feel that way, I come from another "inferior" milieu, I do not dare to do anything--

German Translation:

Links:

Das Leben ist ein Kampf!
Siege!
(Goethe)

Aber es ist so schwer zu kämpfen ohne Ziel, zu kämpfen ohne Liebe und Verständnis.

Wenn ich jetzt zurückkomme nach Ajanoth will ich stark sein, ich will Michel nichts merken lassen, auch wenn ich daran kaputt gehe!

Es muss gehen; ich muss kämpfen, aber …. 

Rechts:

Ajanoth, 20. Oktober 1945

Ich weiss nicht, alles ist öde, grau und leer, ich lebe nicht, ich vegetiere nur noch.
Essen, schlafen, arbeiten, essen, schlafen und dann fängt es wieder von vorne an. Keine Energie aufzutreiben, nicht mal zum Iwrith lernen, obwohl ich weiss, ich muss es können um zu meinem Ziel zu kommen. Saul sagt richtig: ich komme das erste Mal raus ins Leben und … ich, die immer dachte eine gewisse Lebenseinstellung zu haben, kapituliere, krache bei der ersten Schwierigkeit zusammen. Wie soll das werden?

Nicht mal in meiner Freizeit arbeite ich etwas, manchmal lese ich.
Die Chewrah hier gibt mir nichts, gar nichts. Gebe ich ihr etwas? Nein; denn alle stehen auf einem viel höheren Niveau wie ich z.B. Eveline. Das sind nicht leere Minderwertigkeitskomplexe, sondern ich fühle wirklich so, ich komme aus einem andern „tieferstehenden“ Milieu, getraue mich nicht irgend-





Ruth K. Siegel to Netti Sutro-Katzenstein, Jerusalem, 20 June 1950

20 June 1950

Aus der Sammlung von

Swiss Federal Archives

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Swiss Federal Archives, J2.55#1000/1246#140*Az. 2.2 -8, Weie – Win; Dossier Ruth Westheimer 1933 - ca. 1948, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Zum Objekt >>

Westheimer_Neu_4_Brief_Sutro_S1+2.png
© Swiss Federal Archives, Dossier Ruth Westheimer 1933 – ca. 1948, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer


Ruth K. Siegel to Netti Sutro-Katzenstein, Jerusalem, 20 June 1950

A grant from the Schweizer Hilfswerk für Emigrantenkinder enabled Karola to finish her training as a nursery school teacher in Israel. She stayed in contact with historian Netti Sutro-Katzenstein, who was one of the aid committee’s co-founders.

Transcription: Ruth K. Siegel to Netti Sutro-Katzenstein, Jerusalem, 20 June 1950

English Translation:

Pg. 1:

20.6. 1950

Dear Mrs. Dr. Sutro!

It has been a long time since I heard from you. I hope that everything is going well for you and your family and that you are all healthy.

I am doing really well. I am in the middle of my last exams and next week the seminar ends. I am really happy that I have now finished it and would like to thank you again for the help you have given me!

Dror (Franz) Wertheimer is doing quite well, he is now studying in the course for social workers (welfare) and is satisfied that he can learn his desired profession. The other "Swiss children" are also doing well.

I would be happy to hear from you and greet you.

Sincerely

Your

Grateful

Karola Siegel

 

  1. Siegel

c/o Hanari

Ramberstr. 49

Jerusalem

Rechawia Israel

German Translation:

S.1:

20.6.1950

Liebe Frau Dr. Sutro!

Schon lange habe ich nichts von mir hören lassen. Ich hoffe, es geht Ihnen und Ihrer Familie gut und es sind alle gesund.

Mir geht es sehr gut. Ich bin mitten in den letzten Prüfungen und nächste Woche beendige ich das Seminar. Ich bin sehr froh, dass ich es nun doch geschafft habe und ich möchte Ihnen nochmals für die Hilfe danken die Sie mir zukommen liessen! Ich weiss nicht wie ich ohne dieses das letzte Jahr hätte beenden können; denn im letzten Jahr ist es unmöglich gleichzeitig zu lernen und zu arbeiten.

Dror (Franz) Wertheimer geht es ganz gut, er lernt jetzt im Kurs für Sozialarbeiter (Fürsorge) und ist zufrieden dass er seinen ersehnten Beruf erlernen kann. Auch den andern „schweizer Kinder“ geht es gut.

Ich würde mich freuen von Ihnen etwas zu hören und grüsse Sie

herzlichst

Ihre

dankbare

Karola Siegel

 

  1. Siegel

c/o Hanari

Ramberstr. 49

Jerusalem

Rechawia Israel





Master’s thesis by Ruth K. Westheimer, 1959

Aus der Sammlung von

Swiss Literary Archives of the Swiss National Library, Bern

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Swiss Literary Archives of the Swiss National Library, Bern, Sg. D-5-f

Zum Objekt >>

Westheimer_100_Masterarbeit_Titelblatt.png
© Swiss Literary Archives of the Swiss National Library, Bern, Sg. D-5-f-7, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Master’s thesis by Ruth K. Westheimer, 1959

In her Master’s thesis, Karola – now Ruth K. Westheimer – revisited her past and wrote about the children in the Wartheim children’s home.





Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer talks to Sylvia Asmus about a special memento, 4 December 2020

4 December 2020

Aus der Sammlung von

German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Zum Objekt >>

© German Exile Archives 1933–1945 of the German National Library, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer talks to Sylvia Asmus about a special memento, 4 December 2020

The embroidered wash glove was a “last-minute item” packed into Karola’s suitcase by her mother and grandmother. Rather than a utility item, it is now a link with Dr. Ruth’s lost parents.





Poster for the film Ask Dr. Ruth, 2019

Aus der Sammlung von

Filmwelt Distribution Agency

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

Filmwelt Distribution Agency

Zum Objekt >>

Plakat_Ask_Dr_Ruth.png
© Filmwelt Distribution Agency

Poster for the film Ask Dr. Ruth, 2019

In the 1980s, Ruth K. Westheimer became famous throughout the USA as sexual therapist “Dr. Ruth”. The film Ask Dr. Ruth opened at the cinemas in 2019.





Karola Ruth Siegel Slideshow

Slideshow by David Barth, 2021

Aus der Sammlung von

(1-7) Private property
(8) Courtesy of the Barack Obama Presidential Library

Wie darf ich das Objekt nutzen?

Quelle

(1-7) Private property, courtesy of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer (8) Courtesy of the Barack Obama Presidential Library

Zum Objekt >>

Kurzbeschreibung
(1) Irma, Julius and Karola Ruth Siegel, beginning of the 1930s in Wiesenfeld
(2) Karola Ruth Siegel, 1934, first day of school at Samson-Raphael-Hirsch Schule in Frankfurt am Main
(3) Karola Ruth Siegel (middle), summer camp Bad Nauheim, 1937/38
(4) Karola Ruth Siegel in December 1938, a few days before her departure to Switzerland
(5) Ruth K. Siegel, 1947 in Jerusalem
(6) Wedding photo of Ruth K. Siegel and Manfred Westheimer, 10 December 1961
(7) Ruth K. Westheimer after completing her doctorate at Columbia University, 1970
(8) Ruth K. Westheimer and former US President Barack Obama, 26 April 2013
Diashow_Westheimer_EN.gif

Eine virtuelle Ausstellung von

Team

Curators:
Dr. Sylvia Asmus
David Barth
Dr. Jesko Bender

Text from the "Memorial Designs" section:
Dr. Jessica Beebone (city of Frankfurt am Main)

Further contributions to the exhibition:

Country -texts in the section "Host countries": Angelika Rieber and Andrea Hammel


Short biographies of the children and adolescents in the section "Host countries": Angelika Rieber


Short biographies of aid workers and the
information texts on aid organisations, schools and training centres in the "Bureaucracy" section: Hanna Eckhardt

Comic Illustrators:
Hamed Eshrat - Renata Harris Comic - www.eshrat.de
Illi Anna Heger - Lili Fürst Comic - www.annaheger.de
Sascha Hommer - Elisabeth  Reinhuber-Adorno Comic - www.saschahommer.com
Magdalena Kaszuba - Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer Comic - www.magdalenakaszuba.de
Ilknur Kocer - Lee Edwards Comic - www.Ilkikocer.com
Birgit Weyhe  - Josef Einhorn Comic - www.birgit-weyhe.de

Image Processing:
German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library, Space4 GmbH

Presentation:
Space4 GmbH

Object Photography:
Alexander Paul Englert

Special Thanks:
Our appreciation and thanks goes to Lee Edwards, Renata Harris and Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, who personally contributed to the realization of this exhibition. The exhibition is also dedicated to the memory of Lili Schneider, Josef Karniel and Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno. 

We were also supported by the families and descendants of the children of that time: Lena Sarah Carlebach, Yvonne Eidelman, Sharon Karniel, Oliver Neth, Dr. Franziska Reinhuber, Prof. Dr. Joachim Reinhuber and Dr. Nikolaus Reinhuber, Jan Schneider, Joel Westheimer and Miriam Westheimer. They have placed their trust in us and have thus made this project possible in the first place.
We would like to thank Lee Edwards, Renata Harris and the organisation Project Jewish Life in Frankfurt am Main.  We would also like to thank Spurensuche - Begegnung - Erinnerung e.V. for the perserverance with which they insisted on the realization of a memorial for the Kindertransporte in Frankfurt and helped the topic gain visibility. 

We would like to thank the city of Frankfurt am Main for its cooperation in the common effort to commemorate the emiration of children from Frankfurt. We would like to thank the artist Yael Bartana and her team for providing us with the prototype of the memorial. 

Furthermore, we would like to thank you for your advice and collegial support: Dr. Thomas Bauer, Christian Baiter-Guth, Dr. Jessica Beebone, Hanna Eckhardt, Alexander Paul Englert, Klaus Hartenfeller, Ronit Katzir-Shimoni, Till Lieberz-Gross, Dr. Clemens Maier-Wolthausen, Angelika Rieber, Mona Wikhäll and publisher, Behrmanhouse.

We would like to thank all colleagues from institutions that preserve our holdings and who supported us in our research, even though we cannot mention all of them here. 

Erstellt mit :
DDB Studio
Ein Service von:
DDB Studio

Diese Ausstellung wurde am 04.08.2022 veröffentlicht.



Impressum

Die virtuelle Ausstellung Child Emigration from Frankfurt wird veröffentlicht von:

German Exile Archives 1933-1945 of the German National Library
German National Library
Adickesallee 1
60322 Frankfurt am Main
gesetzlich vertreten durch General Director Frank Scholze

Telefon: 069 1525-1900
Fax: 069 1525-1959
E-Mail:  exilarchiv@dnb.de

Inhaltlich verantwortlich:
General Director Frank Scholze
German National Library
Adickesallee 1
60322 Frankfurt am Main

Kurator*innen:
Dr. Sylvia Asmus
David Barth
Dr. Jesko Bender

 

Rechtliche Hinweise:
Die Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek verlinkt die virtuelle Ausstellung auf ihrer Internetseite https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/content/virtuelle-ausstellungen. Dabei wurde auf die Vertrauenswürdigkeit der Institution, welche die Ausstellung veröffentlich hat sowie die Fehlerfreiheit und Rechtmäßigkeit der virtuellen Ausstellung besonders geachtet. Der auf dieser Internetseite vorhandene Link vermittelt lediglich den Zugang zur virtuellen Ausstellung. Die Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek übernimmt keine Verantwortung für die Inhalte der virtuellen Ausstellung und distanziert sich ausdrücklich von allen Inhalten der virtuellen Ausstellung, die möglicherweise straf- oder haftungsrechtlich relevant sind oder gegen die guten Sitten verstoßen. 

DDBstudio wird angeboten von:  
Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, gesetzlich vertreten durch ihren Präsidenten,
handelnd für das durch Verwaltungs- und Finanzabkommen zwischen Bund und Ländern errichtete Kompetenznetzwerk

Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
c/o Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Von-der-Heydt-Straße 16-18
10785 Berlin 

Telefon: +49 (0)30 266-41 1432, Fax: +49 (0) 30 266-31 1432,
E-Mail: geschaeftsstelle@deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de

Umsatzsteueridentifikationsnummer: 
DE 13 66 30 206

Inhaltlich verantwortlich: 
Dr. Julia Spohr
Leiterin der Geschäftsstelle
Finanzen, Recht, Kommunikation, Marketing
Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
c/o Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Von-der-Heydt-Straße 16-18
10785 Berlin

Konzeption:
Nicole Lücking, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
Stephan Bartholmei, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
Dr. Michael Müller, Culture to Go GbR

Design: 
Andrea Mikuljan, FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institut für Informationsinfrastruktur GmbH

Technische Umsetzung:
Culture to Go GbR mit Grandgeorg Websolutions

Hosting und Betrieb:  
FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institut für Informationsinfrastruktur GmbH



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