Holocaust
Featured stories and objects
Photograph of Will and Lilli on holiday with their daughters, 1925
“Willy Friedlander was born in Berlin in 1878. Although he was Jewish, he felt himself to be a loyal German citizen, and fought in the German Army in the First World War. For this he was awarded the Honour Cross 1914-1918. This is sometimes known as the Hindenburg Cross because it was not awarded until 1934 when the Third Reich were trying to promote national pride.
Willy and his wife Lilli had two daughters, Dora and Gerda. Willy was a jeweler and owned a beautiful shop in Berlin. When Hitler came to power in the early 1930's they began to realise that life for Jews was going to become difficult, and after Willy's shop was destroyed on Kristallnacht in 1938 they decided they would have to leave.”
Shared by Janet Ainley at Ahmadiyyah Mosque Hall, Warwickshire on 7 October 2023. The event was organised by Leamington History Group.
“My father, Max Heinz Nathan, was a Holocaust survivor from Berlin. Born on May 5, 1920, Max's parents, Werner and Grete Nathan, were determined to protect their only child by ensuring he acquired technical skills which could provide him with a means of survival once he left Germany. They enrolled him in a vocational training school as Jewish children were banned from schools. There Max learned plumbing, electrical work and welding.”
“As the war progressed, Max enlisted in the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps (AMPC), followed by the RAOC, and the REME. These German-speaking Jews were invaluable to the war effort and later dubbed by Churchill as the "King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens". They wanted to show their gratitude to Britain for having taken them in and saving their lives. Meanwhile, back in Berlin, his parents and grandmother were deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in December 1942. For six long years, Max had no news from his family, no idea if they were still alive or not. In 1945, he found out through the International Red Cross that his parents had survived. Barely. His grandmother Julie had been starved to death. He then sent his parents a photograph postcard of him in his Pioneer Corps uniform on the one side, and, on the reverse, he informed the censors he hadn't seen his parents in six years and that "his card would pass any X-ray".”
Shared by Judith Ellen Elam online via the Their Finest Hour project website.
“My parents, who were Jewish, grew up in Vienna and left shortly after the Anschluss. They met in London, got married, and opened up a small textile factory in Cardiff. In 1940, they were interned as 'enemy aliens' in separate camps on the Isle of Man for a year. After this, they moved to Liverpool where I was born and we came to the U. S. in 1950.”
“My mother kept my father's letters while they were interned. This package contains my father's letters, and my sister Kay's typed version of the letters so they are more readable.”
Shared by Tony Hausner online via the Their Finest Hour project website.
“Josephine Lange (10.06.1924-26.04.2010) was a German born in Hann, Westphalia. She lived in Germany during the war. Her father, Heinrich Lange, was a train driver. Since Hann was a major railway site, it was attacked by the Allies. Her father was killed during an air raid on 26th November 1944, while being on the way to an air raid shelter. He wanted Josephine to stay with her mother, but she wanted to go with him. She found him dead outside. She was about 20 years old at the time. She was in the Land Army.”
“She had a large family including two brothers who died in the war. Her brother, Josef Lange, was killed in Warsaw during the German offensive into Poland on 14th September 1939. Heinrich Lange, her other brother, was a conscientious objector. He spoke against Hitler and was reported against for this. This led to his arrest in 1938 before the war started. He was sent to concentration camps and was forced to work for the German army. He was in Flossenbürg concentration camp from 06.04.1940 to 31.08.1942. He was a guard for women and political prisoners. He was in other camps as well but those details are uncertain. In 1942, he returned home for a week, but never spoke about what he had seen. He was then sent to fight in the eastern front as part of the German army and was killed on 24th August 1944 during the Russian offensive in Poland. Not many details are known beyond this.”
Shared by Josephine Lange at Liverpool Central Library, Merseyside on 2 March 2024.
Alien registration cards issued.
“My parents, who were Jewish, grew up in Vienna and left shortly after the Anschluss. They met in London, got married, and opened up a small textile factory in Cardiff. In 1940, they were interned as 'enemy aliens' in separate camps on the Isle of Man for a year. After this, they moved to Liverpool where I was born and we came to the U. S. in 1950.”
Shared by Tony Hausner online via the Their Finest Hour project website.
“One of the associated objects, her Certificate of Registration as an alien, adds the name 'Sara' which was not her name but which she had been obliged to adopt by a Nazi law of 17th August 1938, as were all Jewish women with 'non-Jewish' names. (Men had to adopt the additional name 'Israel'.) This Certificate illustrates the extremely tight controls applied in Britain to 'enemy aliens', having to obtain dated and timed permission from the local police to leave their place of residence, then register both arrival and departure with the police local to their destination. Sometimes, Hilde was obliged to remain indoors within specified hours.”
“Having decided to marry, John joined the Ministry of Agriculture to earn a wage and moved to Nottinghamshire. Hilde and John married on March 25th, 1944, and she had a new Identity Card issued in her married name (copy attached). Their wedding was a 'budget' affair, but someone found six tulips for a bouquet, and a single photograph was taken (attached). The 'bouquet' was kept for decades until it fell apart (photo attached). Hilde's father, Leopold, was named on their marriage certificate (attached). Of course, she did not know that he had died two years earlier in the Lodz ghetto in Poland.”
Shared by Helen and Mike Norris online via the Their Finest Hour project website.
