Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgments
- Family trees
- 1 Introduction
- 2 German-Jewish lives from emancipation through the Weimar Republic
- 3 Losing one's business and citizenship: the Geschwister Kaufmann, 1933–1938
- 4 Professional roadblocks and personal detours: Lotti and Marianne, 1933–1938
- 5 The November Pogrom (1938) and its consequences for Kurt and his family
- 6 New beginnings in Palestine, 1935–1939: Lotti and Kurt
- 7 Rescuing loved ones trapped in Nazi Germany, 1939–1942
- 8 Wartime rumors and postwar revelations
- 9 Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - Wartime rumors and postwar revelations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgments
- Family trees
- 1 Introduction
- 2 German-Jewish lives from emancipation through the Weimar Republic
- 3 Losing one's business and citizenship: the Geschwister Kaufmann, 1933–1938
- 4 Professional roadblocks and personal detours: Lotti and Marianne, 1933–1938
- 5 The November Pogrom (1938) and its consequences for Kurt and his family
- 6 New beginnings in Palestine, 1935–1939: Lotti and Kurt
- 7 Rescuing loved ones trapped in Nazi Germany, 1939–1942
- 8 Wartime rumors and postwar revelations
- 9 Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Strewn across continents themselves, Marianne, Kurt and Lotti received in early November 1942 their mother and their aunt's last Red Cross message, dated 27 May 1942. In late November Kurt relayed a “sad message” to Marianne from the brother-in-law of their cousin Ernst Roer:
Richard Rothschild at Tel Aviv got a Red Cross message from [his wife's brother] Ernst Roer, then in Essen … that they were leaving for the “Reich Aged Ghetto” at Theresienstadt “where the Cologne aunts had gone already beforehand.” That is all we know. Of course among the “Cologne aunts” we certainly must count our dear mother… I think you spare me [sic] to tell you my thoughts and feelings, particularly in connection with the awful general news about the European Jewry which are [sic] in the papers just now.
Kurt and Lotti sent inquiries about their mother's fate to the office of the Prague Jewish Community (Jüdische Kultusgemeinde) at the end of 1942 and encouraged Marianne to do the same. Even if the Prague Jewish Community had had information about their loved ones' internment in the former garrison town of Theresienstadt (Terezín), their office would not have been able to readily send news to countries at war with Germany, given the ongoing internment and deportations of its community members. Nevertheless, Hans and Lotti inquired in Red Cross messages there and even at the Vatican about their loved ones' fate.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Life and Loss in the Shadow of the HolocaustA Jewish Family's Untold Story, pp. 217 - 237Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011