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20th July 2009 Ernst Michaelis

 

This is the translation of a typed document (letter) found in a box in Dick and lnvolut Jessup's House in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA in July 2009. lnvolut was the daughter of Werner and Kaethe Vogel. Werner Vogel was my mother's first cousin. Kaethe Vogel and her relatives were not Jewish. The letter is headed (in German) "Copy". lnvolut, Kaethe and Werner immigrated to the USA (in I think 1938). They had managed to get an Affidavit (visa) because Uncle Werner was an outstanding Professor of Mathematics.

 

The paper on which the document is typed appears to be of the kind used in Germany for airmail letters during and immediately after the war i.e. it appears to be a copy made in Germany, presumably because the same letter was also sent to one or more other addresses - but it certainly was never received by me. Aunt Kaethe did not inform me of its existence or contents and I had almost none of the information it contains. The only specific information I did get was via the "Restitution Office", many years late, in 1951, which was just about the date of my family’s arrest (and an assumed date of death).

 

l have generally translated literally so that some of the wording will sound stilted. I felt that in view of the nature of the document, editing should be kept to a minimum - it should effectively be limited to putting down what evidently the writer meant to say.

 

Aunt Kaethe has written across the top:

''Letter from Lilli about conditions in Germany during and after the war.”

 

The letter was written in Germany on the 20th April 1946

(Lilli was, most likely, Kaethe's cousin. She clearly found writing the letter quite emotional.

Both the sequences in time and some of the subject matter are quite muddled) (Update: Lotte was Kaethe's sister)

 

My dearest - you have been granted the most marvellous good fortune to have avoided all the endless pains and horrors. We are so happy that we are still allowed to have you and to know that you are well.

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On the 17th April I was with Friedel Kuhn (most probably another of Aunt Kaethe's cousins, update actually a close friend of Lotte) and she is just so grateful that her husband, child and mother have survived. To have lost all the beautiful furniture, clothing etc is not important - to be alive is all that matters. She lives in a room with furniture collected from all sorts of places. In the bedroom part of a wall is missing. It is the only house in the street that is still standing and the only flat that is still occupied. I gave her Kaethe's dear letter and showed her Werner's magazine - she wept - she is at the end of her tether. She mourns 14 people from our circle of relations and friends, and so we come to the subject of the Families Michaelis, Rosenbaum and Flatow. What has happened to all these dear people - are they all dead or did death perhaps pass them by? Aunt Lina and Aunt Resi (my grandmother and mother) were so full of faith. When I visited Uncle Walther (my father) for the first time they had just received the order to leave their home under the (Nazi) Law that compelled Jewish families to give up their homes and share homes with other Jewish families. (This non-Jewish lady - was it Fridel or Lilli - who, prior to this time had never visited us decided to take the enormous risk to try to help, and so had just made contact for the first time.) They were of course very agitated. Resi talked about the small beginnings of all the terrible events: orders to hand in their telephone and radio, curfew, wearing the yellow star even inside the home - these were minor matters - the others Resi would not even talk about.

 

With iron determination they organised their move. Resi divided the contents of the flat into three categories: what can I spare, what must I sell. what must I keep under all circumstances. Uncle Walther made an appeal for a little more time but this was of course refused - one week for such a home is simply not enough. They moved quickly. They arranged to spend (camp out) for a night on the stairs but there was an air raid and they went into the cellar where they had to sit away from the other (non Jewish) residents in the block.

 

Resi bought deep frozen vegetables, which were very expensive. They could not exist from what they could get on their ration cards (If this refers to a time after they were evicted from their flat I assume my parents must have managed to get some money from selling some of the contents of the flat). Every Thursday they invited Uncle Max (Werner Vogel's brother) for lunch. He lived in a basement were his things went mouldy in the wardrobe.

 

Resi was greatly missing and was deeply concerned about her youngest son (me - German propaganda had of course described conditions in England which had nothing to do with the reality).  She counted the days when she received no news - and then she received your letter with information about the school - but most of the contents had been censored. She showed it to me with great sadness.

 

Uncle Walther said that we must never allow ourselves to feel deeply sorry for others when we can do nothing to alleviate their plight. They told me that even when he (me) left they were not allowed on the platform to say a last good-by. (In fact, after we had parted in a waiting room at the front of the station, my parents took a taxi and managed to persuade the driver to race to the next station on the route and I saw them there for the last time). Their older son (my brother) was to have left for Belgium, but it did not happen (This is a muddled up story).

 

In the meantime Uncle Max had to go away (a euphemism for going to a slave labour camp). I brought them Werner's old shirts, which you, dear Kaethe, had bundled up. Resi put them all in good order. Where could one get some boots?  Father's Sunday shoes with rubber soles were almost new and well ‘oiled’. I took them to him with the request to give them to someone else if they did not fit. However he found them very comfortable. I had to ask Otto how to place a foot cloth. (I visited Resi just before and just after Christmas.) Aunt Lina said that Uncle Max was not practical for such matters. On the 8th January, the poor man had to go off - we were told to the camp at Litzannstadt.

 

Aunt Resi was always very welcoming and a very warm friend - how did this woman manage to remain so calm and where did she get her strength? Once she wanted to express gratitude and friendship and would have liked to invite the three of us for a cup of coffee. But it was no longer possible. Whenever  I went to visit them I was shaking with terror. Many bad things could have happened to me had I been discovered there. Gretel (daughter or another cousin?) suggested "that if I just got locked up it wouldn't be so bad, but we could not risk having our land confiscated". (I think there is meant to be some humour in that sentence) I had to stop visiting them, and when Resi wrote to me she never put where it was from.

 

Uncle Walther's 60th birthday (Lilli has jumped back from 1942 to 1940) had been a great occasion. There was even a major celebration at the 'church' (This probably refers to the special "thanksgiving service for his life" at the synagogue). I believe you were informed about this.

 

Resi had become resigned to the fact that sooner or later they would be taken away (to concentration camp) She shook with fear every time the bell rang or the post came. They had special warm pyjamas made and Resi talked about taking household items with them. A large suitcase was standing ready, and we had provided a rucksack. I was being kept informed about what was going on via another connection.

 

They had prepared hand luggage for Uncle Max – I gave him your blue suitcase and the sturdy rucksack. Resi was pleased (?).

 

In respect of the Rosenbaums all I know is that they gave their possessions to a Shipper and it was all destroyed by fire. Stepha's husband had the very best and finest medical instruments obtainable.

 

We were also worried when Resi's home was searched and she had to explain what stores she had.

 

Uncie Max had specially moved to the west side to be better protected from the north, but it did not help (l can only guess what this sentence might mean - it, and the last previous reference to Uncle Max, clearly refers to an earlier time).

 

All I remember about the Flatows is that they had a series of opportunities to emigrate but each time found an excuse that compelled them not to go.

 

At the beginning of 1943 Gretel had night duty as air raid warden, and so at 7 o'clock on Sunday morning she went past the place where Resi had been living (I am sure she means where my family had been living) and was shocked to see that two new name plate had been fitted - and hers had been removed.

 

Within the next few days I went there, armed with a few cigarettes 'to open doors and hearts'. In the yard I found a rough looking woman who looked 'like a suit of armour with a male haircut'. I asked for the caretaker for the block and she said she was the caretaker. She told me that all the people had been 'collected' before the holiday. I asked "where were they taken?" and she said "probably Theresienstadt". I got myself home - there was no point in asking if they had been able to take a suitcase with them: I knew that often people had not even been allowed to take a coat.-

 

At the bottom of the page is a hand written note to say that the Gestapo collected the Michaelis family in December 1942. The official document I received in 1951 states that it was in fact in October 1942. Evidently, they had not been able to get in touch for some time.