Tag Archives: Jewish history

The Levins

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The Levins were a wealthy Jewish family from Berlin. Ernst was born in 1887 to Natalie and Willy Levin, who were incredibly prominent in the avant-garde arts’ scene at the turn of the century in Berlin. Ernst’s older brother Kurt, who would also eventually emigrate to the UK, also served in the First World War: some of his correspondence survives. His younger brother Walter Levin came to a tragic end after contracting Polio in Israel, which is described in detail in the post ‘The Israel Family Branch’.

Ernst later attempted to recover his mother’s property and wealth, which was unfairly taxed by the Nazi regime. In letters to his lawyer handling the case, he gives detailed accounts of his childhood in the Levin household in order to confirm their level of wealth.

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Letter to lawyer Karl Leonhard on Ernst’s youth in the Levin household

Ernst describes his youth, childhood home and parents in a letter to the Berlin-based lawyer Karl Leonhard, to support the evaluation of his mother’s jewellery. This letter allows insight into the decadent lifestyle of the wealthy Jewish family in Berlin and his parents’ affinity to the arts. As a child Ernst was exposed to prominent artistic circles, to which famous composer Richard Strauss belonged, as a result of his parents’ connections.

28th June 1956:

“You requested that my brother Kurt and I separately write you a summary of our parents to get an idea of their standard of living and circumstances, in order to determine that the jewellery [of Natalie Levin] is expensive and rare.

I will try and build a picture of our life for you:

I was born on the 8th April 1887 in my parents’ flat in Berlin. At the time, this was the West and a very affluent area.

My mother, maiden name Harff and born in Cologne on the Rhine, was a rich heiress and brought 3 million Marks to the marriage with my father: they married in 1886 in Berlin.

At the time of my birth my father was a co-owner of the company ‘Louis Levin and sons’, a famous sweets company, with their biggest factory on Kronenstrasse. My grandfather Louis Levin was still living and active then, and two of my father’s younger brothers, Adolph and Otto Levin, also worked in the company. [gives details of friends and employees who would confirm this lifestyle approximation].

My father went to shops in Paris and London every year, and several of Mother’s expensive jewellery pieces were bought in Paris. Siblings Kurt, Margot, Walter and Gertrud born in the years 1888, 1889, 1890 and 1893, and with every child my mother received another piece of jewellery. As far as I can tell, all the jewellery was bought prior to 1914, whilst my father was still at the height of his success.

I spent my youth in this apartment in Berlin, moving once in 1900 to Eisenbach but returning in 1904 to my school ‘Falk Real Gymnasium’ in Berlin, sitting the final examinations in 1906.

… The house was constantly full of people, there was never an evening without dinner guests, music was played, billiards played, feasts laid out and much Bordeaux was consumed, which my father enjoyed alongside expensive Havanna[sic.] cigarettes. Family summer holidays were spent in Aalbeck or Heringsdorf. When my father stayed in Munich, he stayed at the Hotel of the Four Seasons where he reserved a suite of rooms. At this time I began life-long friendships with Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner and Max Reinhardt, who were all struggling at the time and were supported by my father.

Masked balls were sometimes held at the house, and my father kept a large wine cellar … In 1900 we moved to a 24 room apartment which cost 44 000 Marks a month. At the same time, my father built a new factory which cost 1 million Marks. He bought progressively more expensive and valuable paintings and books. This new home became the centre of contact between artists, writers, composers and superintendents.

Even though my father never discussed in detail his finances with me, I know from other sources that he earned a further 1 million Marks to mother’s 3 million.

… In the year 1917 with my marriage came a division of the wealth. My brother Kurt and I both got 200 000 marks, the two sisters 300 000 marks each and my poor brother Walter, who in Palestine 1914 as a Zionist farmer had an accident which confined him to a wheelchair, also got 300 000. I was in the war from the first day to the last, and my brother was heavily injured in 1917. My father suffered with the economic inflation, but managed to support himself in the apartment, where he celebrated his sixtieth birthday, until 1926, when he decided to move somewhere less expensive, and reluctantly sell one of his factories.

The central point is that my father until 1920 was a very rich, noble and hospitable gentleman of exemplary character. [underlined in red] Nearly all of my mother’s jewellery comes from 1886-1920 and as of yet, no one has valued it.”

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Letter from lawyer Karl Leonhard detailing the reclamation of taxes on Jews for Natalie Levin

Under Hitler, as part of their progressively more drastic persecution, Jews were forced to pay special taxes to the state. These were later re-paid in compensation to Jewish refugees and survivors of the Holocaust, as part of the war reparations demanded of defeated Germany. Often property, land and wealth had been confiscated from Jews and in the decades following the war there were efforts to return these to their rightful owners. As Natalie Levin died in Berlin in 1942, her sons and grand-children inherited what she was due.

17th September 1957:

Claims for Natalie Levin

Applied for:

  • ‘Judenvermoegensabgabe’ = special tax on Jews in the Third Reich. [injury to wealth]
  • ‘Sterntraegerschaden’ = ‘star-wearer’s plight’ [injury to freedom]
  • Apartment contents
  • Silver
  • Jewellery

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First World War letter from Kurt Levin to his younger brother Walter Levin (who committed suicide in 1923), describing the tedium of life on the front

14th July 1915:

“Dear Walter … The last letter I received from you was on the 25th June … I am glad to see that you all seem to be in as good a mood as possible in this time. Especially you, Walter, are being very resilient and tough ‘in the Field’, as you are in a more difficult situation than me and do not lament it. In response to your anxieties over what job to do or what to study now, is hard to advise from here … as long as the war continues, it is not easy to predict a post-war future and what it will look like. At least for me anyway, there is just a big empty hole in my brain in place of thoughts on careers etc … if the war was at least a bit more fun and active, as far as I’m concerned it can last a hundred years … For months now the war has been for me a cheap and comfortable holiday … due to my French occupation I have been excused from many duties. My hosts treat me better than I deserve, because I am often mean because of bad moods. The miserable food from the ‘Feldkueche’ (war canteen) is now just a side dish for me as I eat lunch and dinner with my hosts every day. They now have the most delicious fresh vegetables in their garden and potatoes, rhubarb and cherry compote, eggs and fresh milk. There are books: good and bad ones, French and German. We often play chess. Happily, the only thing that is really missing is a good piano. There is actually one, a good one, but it is in the ‘Chateau’, where my bosses live. The lady of the house has already offered me to play on it but I am of course only allowed in the Officers’ quarters from the back of the house through the kitchen, and only to discuss work-related matters.

But it’s fine without (a piano) too. It is good weather, we only need light clothing and boots … you can tell mother that the ones she sent fit me very well and really lifted my spirits. It is a very peculiar atmosphere, in the time just between war and peace … we can’t even hear the distant canon-fire anymore … our shooting has not once, as far as I can tell, even shot down one of the planes that fly overhead …

You see, we don’t have anything to do with the enemy over here. However we did have a war last week with the women, old men and young boys of the village … it was a type of revolution, more strange than serious: a work and respect strike. We staged a siege on them for ten days with taxes, arrest of important people and confiscation of food. And so now us Bavarians are more feared than loved down in the village.

The atmosphere amongst the troops is very good. Many of them have never had it as good as this: lots to eat, not much to do, and enough people to send three quarters of them home. But a noticeable impatience permeates: it is more present in the young ones than the old. They would all rather have just two or three months more of intensive war like in the beginning and then have it over than sit comfortably and wait for two or three years. The young ones often sign up to the infantry – they are scared, that they will be surprised with the end of the war before they even have a chance to see anything. The old ones – we have men up to forty-five years old – value their lives a bit more and sit quietly. The phrase ‘I have a wife and kids’ is not seen as an excuse though or cowardice, as we all know that when the war was in its most critical stages, the old ones were braver and held out a lot better than the sixteen year-olds. Three days and nights without any proper sleep, through thick mud in Winter … no uncomfortable situation could phase these veterans.”

The Levins and Israel: Emigration to Palestine and Israel

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The Association of Jewish Refugees was involved in contextualising Jewish history and documenting the Jewish experience, as evidenced by their correspondence with Ernst in order to clarify the identity of figures in a First World War book written by the Jewish-German Zionist, scholar and physician Dr. Elias Auerbach.

From Ernst’s reply, it is apparent that Auerbach, working in Israel, treated his younger brother Walter Levin when he contracted polio in 1914. He proceeded to record this treatment in one of his autobiographies, likely one entitled ‘From The Fatherland to the Land of the Fathers, the first Jewish doctor in Haifa’, pages of which are shown below. Ernst expresses strong personal distaste for the doctor in question, who apparently refused to allow Ernst’s emigration to Palestine before WWII, due to Anicuta being ‘Arian[sic.] and Catholic’.

Ernst’s reply to query from the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain:

27th July 1971:

“May I use this occasion to answer your question concerning Dr Auerbach’s book: Yes, the Walter Levin he mentions was my youngest brother, who emigrated to the then Turkish Palestine in 1910 to work on the family farm of the brothers Treidel in Kinnereth. He acquired an acute Poliomyelitis there and I collected him in Sues[sic.] … He survived the War Years 1914-1919 paralysed in arms and legs, and committed suicide in 1923; I have loved him dearly. Dr. A. denied that Polio was endemic in Palestine: it was not true”

“I met Dr. A. again in Berlin when I wished to emigrate to Palestine when Hitler was swindled into power. He bluntly refused my application because my young wife was Arian [sic.] and Catholic.; he was extremely nasty and unpleasant to me.”

“Our family farm at Kinnereth is now run my nephew Gabi Treidel, son of my youngest sister Trude Levin who married Oskar Treidel and died in Berlin from a cerebellar abscess.”

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Letter from Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain discussing the memoirs of Dr Elias Auerbach and his mention of Walter Levin. Photocopied pages enclosed

The representative of the Association of Jewish Refugees writing to Ernst stresses the vital importance of documenting Jewish history though family archives, requesting that should he ever want to rid himself of his father’s correspondence, that he should donate them to a Jewish body such as the Leo Baeck Institute London.

 

10th April 1974:

“I enclose a Photostat of the relevant pages. Though I realise that they revive sad memories for you, I could imagine that they will be of interest to you.

You will notice that in the March issue the problem of Richard Strauss and the Nazis was dealt with in an article by Mr. Freyham. We received a letter of protest which will appear in the May issue together with Mr Freyham’s comments.

This brings me to another question … As your late father had personal contacts with Strauss (I think the character of the Kommerz Lenrat in Intermezzo was based on him), and as he was also in touch with other prominent artists, I could imagine that some material (correspondence etc.) still exist. This, of course, belongs to the family. There were, however, cases in which relatives were not aware of the importance and did not keep documents of this kind (early attempts at archiving) … I was just in New York where I again visited the Leo Baeck Institute which has a unique collection of literature and documents pertaining to the history of the German Jews between 1812 and 1933. The institute often receives material from families …”

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Photocopied pages of Dr Elias Auerbach’s autobiography, mentioning Walter Levin

Auerbach’s account also supports Ernst’s descriptions of his wealthy parents’ lavish lifestyle and connections to prominent artists of the age. Auerbach claims that Willy Levin, Ernst’s father, was an ardent patron of the arts who knew and supported Max Reinhardt in his early career – Reinhardt would go on to become an internationally renowned theatre and film director.

 

“At the beginning of July 1914 in Haifa we were not yet aware that a huge catastrophe was brewing. The country didn’t yet have a newspaper that was kept informed by telegraph … I personally had other things to think about anyway, since in the first few days of July a severely ill young man of 24 years from Berlin, called Walter Levin, was brought to my hospital. He had wanted to settle in Palestine as a farmer, and as preparation was working on the farm of Alfred Treidel at Kinneret. Two days prior he had suddenly been struck with a very high fever. At first the obvious assumption was that it was malaria, but on the second day, paralysis set in on both legs.

He was in an awful condition … the paralysis was spreading and signs could already be seen in his arms too. It was undoubtedly polio. He was at serious risk of death. [Describes medical processes which halted the progression of the paralysis]

… His life was saved, although the paralysis of his legs etc. of course could not be reversed. His case moved me severely. I personally knew this handsome, blooming young man, who appeared that he would stay a cripple. He came from a rich Jewish family in Berlin. His father, Willy Levin, was a well-known businessman who used his wealth as a patron of the arts. He was one of the first, who helped Max Reinhardt in his rise to fame, and was also in general a great admirer of literature and music.

…I immediately let his father know, who did absolutely everything to be well-informed and get the best treatment for his son. Money was not an obstacle. It was clear that he was uncomfortable with his son in the hands of a ‘village doctor’ in some forgotten corner of the world, and urged the transport of his son back to Berlin. I told him that in the present condition this was as good as murder.

… After three weeks I said that he could travel. The father wanted me to personally accompany my patient to Berlin, but it was out of the question that I should leave my practice for six weeks … it was decided that his brother, a young doctor, would pick him up at Port Said.

… Already in Jaffa, we heard reports of a sharp political tension over Europe and the possibility of a European war. But this thought seemed to us so absurd and fantastical that we didn’t take it seriously. We were born in peace and had decades of peace behind us, and now a war was going to break out amongst the great powers? Unthinkable! Apparently Austria had given Serbia an ultimatum which was turned down. But still, one doesn’t set the world on fire because of one political assassination!

… We dropped the patient off with his brother … and I went to Cairo. Everywhere, groups of people stood in the street animatedly discussing the imminent war … when it was clear the war would happen, I knew I had to get out of Egypt immediately. If England entered the war, I would be in danger of being arrested and interned as a German citizen.”

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Annekathrin visited the Treidels and family in Israel (Haifa), in 1964.

 

Grete Vester: German Identity in the aftermath of the Holocaust

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At the end of the Second World War, with the Nazi’s defeat, the three major allied powers entered Germany from different fronts. German civilians, especially women, were brutalised by the victorious allied forces: horrifying stories of the rapes which occurred across Berlin abound. The Russians liberated Berlin from the East, whilst the British moved through France. Munich, the Levins’ home prior to emigration, was a US occupied zone, as evidenced by the censorship stamps on the letters Anicuta received from an old friend Grete Vester. Grete was a photographer, and like Max Unold was part of the New Objectivity movement in German art (we have a photograph of Anicuta in the collection taken by Grete, referenced in correspondence). Germany entered a period of extreme economic devastation and hardship and the people suffered under the extreme war reparations which were claimed in compensation for the horror of the Holocaust. Trials were held across the country to punish ex-Nazi officials and purge Nazism from society: this process, as Grete writes, was called ‘Entnazifierung’ [de-nazification].

A series of letters from Grete Vester in Munich, with envelopes marked ‘American Zone’, and stamped with ‘U.S. Civil Censorship’ were sent to Anicuta Levin in Edinburgh between summer 1946 and 1947. These embittered letters from the Levins’ old friend show the extent of damage to war-torn Munich and the suffering of Germans in the extreme economic hardship of 1946 and 1947. Grete Vester, identified as one of the ‘old group’ of Munich friends in which Anicuta and Ernst socialised, is described by her sister Marla as having had three strokes throughout the course of the war.

This series of letters touches on the major theme of German post-war identity – Grete expresses extreme anxieties around being deemed a Nazi by ex-neighbours and friends who had fled Germany due to persecution. She ardently claims that she was not a collaborator and in an angst-ridden tone bemoans the fate of German ‘innocents’. She describes post-war Germany as a ‘living hell’: the embittered people are murdering each other like savages. On several occasions, Grete expresses suicidal thoughts, reflecting the unbearably desolate circumstances in the ruins of central Europe circa. 1946/7.

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4th April 1946:

“After six years of never-ending bad luck and abandonment, I am now writing to you full of hope and joy … in 1939 I had the bad luck to have a stroke and have been paralysed in my left side since then, although I can move again now, though with difficulty. In this state I spent the war, although I was evacuated to [Bad] Aibling. Now I am back in war-torn Munich, which you would barely recognise. Through the wretchedness, everywhere you look the people have become mean and embittered. The only thing I now long for is death. Kluger of course left me a long time ago, married a woman and had a child with her, though they are divorced already now. Obviously he already has someone else, because men always fare better in this matter”

“Oh, Anicuta, what did we live through! … I actually barely know what I should write, it cannot be expressed in words! … I would love to come and stay with you, and help with the housework”

(undated) April 1946:

“For God’s sake stay where you are! Don’t even consider trying to alleviate your homesickness for Germany! … I, a nazi-hater, as you know, should actually have a say in their [the Nazis] punishment! But the so-called ‘entnazifizierung’ [‘de-nazification’] is in someone else’s hands completely. Even us, the blameless, are suffering! I truly marvel at the fact that I didn’t end up in a concentration camp because of my big mouth [anti-Nazi discourse]. I guess that’s luck, or bad luck, however you might see it now”

16th August 1946:

“The letters which I so undeservedly receive from abroad are like balsam on my wounds … I was evacuated to Bad Aibling after a heavy attack on Munich … in the bomb shelter, everybody was drinking and flirting … they wanted to live their last hours with courage, or at least in the spirit of gallows humour … the basement doors flew open and the sounds of the bombs exploded in my ears and I waited for the end to come at any moment. But it passed, as you can see … When the Americans came, we were glad”

19th August 1946:

“I am constantly completely alone, at best Marla stops by with a cold face and the oft-used words “I don’t have much time, will need to leave in a few minutes””

[Writes that Marla tends to her out of a sense of duty, but there is no compassion or kindness behind it. Sadly she is reliant on her sister for vital supplies. Grete pleads with Anicuta not to mention her complaints in her reply as Marla reads through her letters.]

5th October 1946:

“I am living with complete strangers, not good or bad, just very uninteresting and also uninterested in me, we were just stuffed in here by the housing department, regardless of what you want. Otherwise you have to sleep in the street. The room is tiny, 2.5 – 4.5 metres, so I can’t put my few possessions anywhere … You cannot imagine what the city looks like now … I only get visitors when I have cigarettes and coffee from my American parcels”

[speaking of an old friend she has corresponded with] “Sadly I get the feeling that she holds us all in contempt, even me, who was anything but a Nazi. This hurts me as I cannot be to blame for being German, and cannot change this”

“The Unolds are somewhere in the countryside. Did you know Grete’s sister, Mrs Keis? She died and recently her son was murdered and robbed on a train. These things happen often these days. This is what desperation does. It doesn’t make people better. No one dares to walk the streets after dark, especially not women”

11th October 1946:

“I have been wanting to write to you about how I live, because I think this isn’t uninteresting to you. I think that all of you who left Germany, have no idea how it is here. Firstly, there is the devastation of the ‘luftkrieg’ [air raids], which is indescribable, although some people say that Munich is gold in comparison to some cities like Frankfurt [hit more intensely] … I need cod-liver oil and vitamin C. Of course you cannot get these in Germany, so I’ve written to New York and Switzerland and have received some already. We’ve had this appalling food for years and Hitler had been giving us low-quality food since 1933.”

“The atmosphere among the people is indescribable. It is as though one were among savages, no it is worse, since savages probably have naïve qualities that make them worthy of being alive … even the so-called ‘qualified’ people leave a lot to be desired. The whole of Germany has been completely ruined by the Nazireich”

[Asks Anicuta repeatedly not to be angry at her for requesting so many times that she join them in Scotland.]

2nd November 1946:

“As you can see, I am already writing on your new paper. Yesterday your package arrived. I thank you warmly and am so happy that at least this worry is alleviated. Sadly the package had been broken into and the typewriter ribbon was stolen out of it. But we are used to these things now … the ribbon clearly showed through the wrapping and someone decided to steal it. Here, people take everything. The people are so poor, that even an old cloth isn’t safe, if it can still be used to clean things with. Hitler left us a great country and through desperation, the people have not improved, but the opposite. This is the reason I can hardly bear it here anymore. Do you understand? … Even finding an envelope takes so long, because you have to go into many shops before you finally have the luck to find one or two”

17th November 1946:

“today I have a big favour to ask you. In Edinburgh there is surely a phonebook for London, where you can find an address which I don’t have here. It’s the address of Dr Philip Hochschild, who emigrated there. He is a very wealthy man, and could I please ask you to write to him explaining my situation and asking him to help me a bit. I was often with him in the time of the Hitlerreich and so he knows, that I wasn’t a Nazi, which means he might be prepared to help me, considering my illness. From abroad, you can send a care-package through the Red Cross … [pleads Anicuta not to think worse of her because of this request] … we are starving and freezing. We don’t have access to the most basic amenities. Often we don’t have any light because the electricity goes. Then we also can’t cook anything, because we don’t have enough gas or fuel. We don’t even have any candles and not enough matches!” 

26th December 1946:

“I received your long-awaited letter yesterday. It was truly the most wonderful Christmas gift. Hopefully it won’t just be a seasonal occurrence … letters are my only joy, and I receive them so rarely. So please don’t be so sparing! Remember than I am alone and lonely. Maybe then it will be easier for you to write more often”

“I am interested to see what we still have to live through, before life is over for us. Sometimes I think, I must have been a real piece of work in a past life, to have deserved such a punishment … no one laughs here anymore, at best cynically, which isn’t so nice”

“There are still Jew-haters here, Hitler really created long-lasting effects. It is awful. Us Germans are really suffering from this, even if one wasn’t a Nazi. And I think that won’t ever change, at least in my lifetime”

13th January 1947:

“My dear Anicuta, I thank you warmly for your last letter from the 18th December. I think I have already answered it, but am not completely sure, as I think of you almost all day long and therefore no longer know, whether I wrote to you or just meant to and thought of you intensely. I am alone for days on end. Marla often doesn’t come for a week, because as she says she has no time. And I sit here in my lonely room with hardly any wood to burn and a great sense of fear … Life is nightmarishly hard. I never dreamed that things would turn out this way. Maybe you can tell, that I don’t want to be alive anymore. But I am scared of death too. Do you understand this? There are also other things which I can’t write about. It would be such a joy if I could see you again … don’t be angry that I’m starting with all this again, because I really do think this would be the only thing that could save me now”

27th February 1947:

“You can hardly imagine what wretched lives we must lead now, even us, who were never Nazis! … You know, of course, what I thought [of the Nazi regime] and how I often opened my mouth to speak against them, even though I was spared the concentration camps. Even in Bad Aibling, where my hatred of the Nazis was well known! It seems disgraceful to have to re-iterate this to you, who knows all of this so well! But when one reads and hears how so many Nazis are trying to wash themselves clean [of their crimes], one thinks, perhaps even friends like you might believe this of me”

15th September 1947:

“I hardly dare to ask, if I couldn’t come to you [in Scotland], you seem to stall which makes me very unsure. Please don’t be offended, but just say yes or no. It is awful in Germany. You can only get medicine in very extreme cases, and life is horrible”

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Letter from Annekathrin to her parents describing the fate of German loved ones

Annekathrin discusses the fate of those ‘missing persons’ who have not been heard from since the end of the war, including her Aunt Margot, who may have been sent to a German concentration camp in Riga, Latvia.

4th August, 1946

“There is no news about Aunt Margot. [Uncle] Kurt is still trying hard to receive any news of her through all manner of committees. Recently Kurt received a letter that Aunt Margot left with German friends before her deportation. The letter indicates that she knew exactly what was coming for her … she didn’t know what camp she would be sent to but assumed it would be Riga”

“Frieda Nauseu is also missing. She was in touch with Mrs Mitslaff, who told her that she would try to go underground if the circumstances worsened. But we don’t know if it worked. Apparently some people got lucky by going underground. But these people have usually come out of hiding by now. It always depended on whether or not an Aryan friend was ready to risk their life for you. I heard about a Jewish woman who was hidden by her Aryan friend for the whole war. She hid in the house and barely went outside. Of course without being registered, and with no ration card. Other people even noticed and brought extra food rations to the friend’s house. Later in the war when things started going wrong and all the officials had their hands full, the friend even risked going on holiday with the Jewish woman to the countryside! … one feels sick when one thinks about it”

“Of course, there weren’t many of these cases. In France, where many people were against the Germans … apparently they smuggled R.A.F. pilots out of the country. Uncle Kurt met one who was a friend of Lutz’s. He was shot down and the French farmers made sure he was treated quickly by a doctor and then they carried him through the village in a potato sack, and in a similar fashion took him to unoccupied territory, where he was quickly picked up by a plane and brought home”

“The letter from Grete is very moving. One really feels sorry for her. Hopefully her speech hasn’t also been affected by her paralysis. It seems as though it hasn’t been. Of course I understand that Pops is doing everything he can to bring her over here. This would probably be a very long process. But I also think it’s important to try. Her situation must be very hopeless. And she always ends up on the worst side. But it made me really happy to hear from her again”

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Letter from Margot Levin [later deported] to Ernst

In Annekathrin’s letter to her parents reflecting on the war, she mentions that Kurt Levin has still not found any trace of his and Ernst’s younger sister Margot. She had left a letter with German friends before being ‘deported’, but Annekathrin implies in an ominous tone that she was being sent to a camp in Riga, Latvia. This theory would be supported by the following letter, desperate in tone, sent to Ernst by Margot in the summer of 1939. Seven years later, with Annekathrin’s letter in 1946, the family still had not had any news from her. This could have been the last correspondence between Margot and her brothers, although there may be more letters in the collection yet to be discovered. Margot appears distressed at the progressively more dangerous situation for the Jewish community in Berlin, claiming that ‘most her circle has left’. She pleads with Ernst to find her any kind of work in the UK: coming over on a ‘domestic service visa’ was a common way to emigrate.

4th August 1939:

“I am currently writing to Kurt about all of my problems and urging him to help quickly. That is why I’m writing to you and ask you also to contact Kurt on my behalf. Hermann, who promised me help last year, has now left Ruth and I in the lurch and hardly ever replies to urgent letter, and if so then with a very late and short letter. This is hard to understand and very depressing for Ruth and I. So – I will have to help myself. I want to get out and ask you and Kurt to help me. I want to get a job there [in the UK], preferably in a family with children. So, I would be a nanny or companion … Please I urge you to look around for any work for me … maybe someone could take me into their household … I can write on a typewriter and do the unpleasant housework … It is very urgent to get a permit for [Britain]. Because the whole processing of the permit takes another 2 to 3 whole months. I’ve seen loads of our acquaintances go through the process. I’m one of the last of my circle to still be here [in Germany], and sadly lost a lot of time because of Hermann’s false promises. I am completely depressed … How is your wife [in the UK] and is she getting used to the new language? … What are the job prospects like there?”

17th August 1939:

“You have not answered my urgent letter and I fear it has gone missing so I am writing to you again … Kurt has only been in Britain for a short while and is therefore less able to help me than you surely are … Ruth told me that Hermann can no longer bring me out to her [in Israel] … So I have only one more option open to me: to come over to you and take a household position … Please talk to your colleagues and boss. I know (and you can check this at the Jewish association) that I am over the required house-help age [45] but don’t worry, it still works, just means that my employer will need insurance for injury at work or sudden inability to perform my duties”.

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Letter from Marla Vester in Munich to Anicuta in Edinburgh

A later letter from Grete Vester’s sister, Marla Vester, creates flaws in Grete’s bitter narrative, causing us to reconsider Grete’s psychological state in her painfully emotional desciptions of suffering. Marla explains that Grete is somewhat delusional, denying the occurrence of her second stroke. This is the last correspondence regarding Grete that I have uncovered in the collection.

4th May 1948:

“[Grete] has been in a bed in the psychiatric clinic’s neurological department for two months now, and the doctors recently told me that she cannot be healed and her situation is hopeless. It will only get worse. She can’t move anymore, the top half of her body looks very healthy and when you just see her top half lying in bed – if she isn’t crying which she does almost constantly now – she doesn’t look ill at all. But her legs are weak like a child’s and have no strength in them … it is awful, Anicuta, to see someone deteriorate like this and be unable to do anything … she suffers particularly acutely because she has lost her faith, and religion gives her absolutely no comfort anymore. She feels as though fate has been cruel to her, without believing that there is any fate beyond this earthly existence. The one good thing is that she is not in pain. / I visit her every Wednesday, but it’s very depressing because she always wants to go outside, which is impossible for her … two nurses have to carry her if she wants to lie outside / … Grete’s situation arose from a series of three strokes. The first one was on the 4th February 1939. She was in hospital for three months and then in a sanatorium for a further 2-3 months. She was left with her left arm and leg paralysed. But she could still walk with a walking stick … then she had a second, less extreme stroke in the autumn of 1941 or 42. I don’t remember exactly anymore. [She has completely forgotten that this stroke ever happened and gets very angry if you mention it]. The paralysis became worse, and her nerves worsened, but then in May 1946 she had her last, heavy stroke which has left her in the present condition. The exact cause is not known. The doctor at the neurological station told me that she suffered at 40 years of age from the kind of stroke which usually hits people at 70. Sometimes I think, maybe some of the blame lies with her frequent sun-bathing. You might remember that for years, every time it was hot, she would lie out in the sun all day and would come home all dazed in the evenings”

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