The End: Deportation, Exile, Survival

The mass deportations of the Jews from Berlin began on October 14th 1941. In at least 21 of the transports to the death camps were children and adults from the Childrens’ Home in Fehrbelliner Strasse 92. The oldest was Balbina Bielschowski, born on 11th March 1874, who was 68 when she was murdered in Theresienstadt. The youngest child was Frieda Steinberg, who was four years old when she was deported to Lodz and murdered.

For children, particularly, the exact date of death cannot always be found. They were probably no longer registered in the camps. They are considered ‘lost’, their fate ‘unexplained’. I could not find out if they had been deported alone or with their family members. There was no organised transport from the Childrens’ Home. In cases were a Declaration of Means existed, one could assume that parents or relatives were also on the death train who might have been able to protect the children somewhat on their last journey. But many of the children who were registered in the Childrens’ Home were orphans or semi orphans and therefore had to fend mostly for themselves.

The little I was able to find out about the children and adults who lived in the Childrens’ Home on Fehrbelliner Strasse is from the archives of the Jewish Community in Berlin and from the databank of the Berlin Book of Commemoration.

There is not much that we can do today to ensure that especially children are not forgotten.

Ignatz Baer was born 16.05.1886 in Gollup. He was a business man and worked in the Childrens’ Home as a labourer. He lived in the Chodowieckistr. 28. His fate is ‘unclear’. He was just fifty-five years old.

Lucie Baer, nee Simon, was born on 08.07.1893 in Berlin. She was deported with her husband. She was forty eight years old.

Margit Rothenstein was born on 08.09.1925 in Berlin. She was admitted to Primary School Nr. 145 on 01.04.1932. She was sent to another school on 24th November. On 28.03.1941 she was forced to leave school. She was deported when she was sixteen. She is registered as ‘missing’.

Margot Slatopolski was born in Berlin on 03.12.1927. In 1933 she entered the primary school in Hoechste Strasse. At Easter 1937 she changed the school. In October 1941 she had to leave school with the entry ‘evacuated’. She spent the last months in the Mannheimer’sche Altersheim. She was not yet 14 years old.

Ursula Slatopolski was born 15.ll.1929 in Berlin. She was admitted to the primary school in Hoechste Strasse in 1936 and sent to another school on 10. 01.1939. She had to leave school in October 1941. She was murdered when she was twelve years old.

Frieda Steinberg (Steynberg) was born 22.02.1937 in Berlin. She was deported when she was four years old and murdered in Riga.

Lore Baer was born in Berlin on 15.03.1928. She was the daughter of Ignatz and Lucie Baer. She was allowed to attend the Rheingauschule in Berlin Friedenau in 1934. On 01.05.1941 she had to change the school. In November 1941 she was deported, aged 13 and is registered as ‘missing’.

Ruth Czarlinski was born 26.06.1924. She, too, spent her last months in the Manheimer’sche Altersheim. She was murdered at seventeen in Minsk.

Leo Finder was born on 21.10.1933 in Berlin. He entered school in 1939 and was forced to change schools in 1941. There is a Declaration of Means dated 15.11.1941. He is listed as ‘missing’. He was eight years old.

Vera Weiss was born 28.06.1929 in Berlin. She was registered in the Jewish School in the Rykestrasse. On 02.06.1941 she changed schools and left in November 1941. She is listed as ‘resettled' and as ‘missing’. She was twelve years old.

Gerda Lewin was born 20.12.1920 or 1923 in Bad Freienwalde. She is listed as ‘missing’. She was 20 or 17.

Horst Lewin was born on 24.01.1927 in Berlin. He was admitted to primary school No. 29 in 1933 and changed schools on 04.10.1937 and again on 20.09.1938. He is listed as ‘missing’. He was fifteen years old.

Fred Halpern was born on 15.02.1931 in Berlin. He entered the Jewish primary school No. 4 in the Fasanenstrasse in 1937 and changed schools on 17.03.1942. There is a Declaration of Means dated 26.03.1942. His last place of residence was the Childrens’ Home. He is listed as abgewandert (left the country). He was eleven years old.

Susanne Felicitas Halpern was born in Berlin on 05.07.1926 and started in the Adass Israel school in 1932. She changed schools on 01.04.1940 and left school on 28.03.1941. She was deported together with her brother. She was murdered when she was sixteen.

Inez Gronowski was born on 18.08.1925 in Koenigsberg/Ostpreussen. She entered a primary school in Berlin Charlottenburg in 1932. She changed schools on 04.04.1940 and left school on 28.03.1941 having completed her compulsory school years. Her last place of residence was Fehrbelliner Strasse 92. She was sixteen when she was deported and murdered.

Ita Dragin was born on 22.12.1933 in Posen and started at the Jewish primary school No.6 in 1940. She had to leave school again in 1942, after two years, and was registered as abgewandert. She was murdered when she was nine years old.

Olga Markiewicz was born in Berlin on 30.08.1895. She worked as children’s carer in the Fehrbelliner Str. 92. It is probable that she forced to work there. On 11.05.1942 she had to fill in a Declaration of Means. She was deported to Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz where she was murdered in November 1944 at the age of forty-seven.

Regina Abraham, nee Rosenstrauch, was born 19.08.1887 in Poland. She worked as a cook in the Childrens’ Home. She lived in Schoenhauser Allee 23-25. Her Declaration of Means is dated 04.09.1942. She spent her last days in the deportation center in Grosse Hamburger Strasse. She was deported to Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz where she was murdered at the age of fifty-five.

Ingrid Victor was born in Berlin on 05.07.1933. In 1939 she entered the Jewish primary school No. 3 and changed schools on 15.11.1941. She was nine years old when she was deported to Riga and murdered.

Thea Fuss was born in Berlin on 16.01.1930.

Ruth Fuss was born in Berlin on 04.09.1931. Both children had Polish nationality but became stateless under the Nazis. In 1936 Thea was sent to a Jewish girls’ school. In 1939 their address was Fehrbelliner Str. 92. With there family they had lived in Fehrbelliner Straße 81.There is a Statement of Means dated 13.10.1942. The sisters were deported and murdered when they were eleven and nine years old. They are registered as ‘missing’.

Ernst and Herbert Czerniak, both born in Berlin on 07.04.1936, last registered as living in Schoenhauser Allee 162. They are listed as ‘missing’.

Auguste Wedlich was born in Duisburg on 13.02.1911. She worked as cook in the Fehrbelliner Strasse 92 and looked after her son who also lived there.

Claus Wedlich was born in Berlin on 29.04.1935. He entered the 6th Jewish primary school in 1941. His mother filled in a Declaration of Means on 21.10.1942. Both were deported together and are registered as ‘missing’. The mother was thirty-one years old and her son was seven.

Gerda Baehr was born in Berlin on 02.07.1921 and worked as Kindergarten teacher in the Childrens’ Home. She first lived in the Duisburger Str. 16, later with the children in the Home. She was twenty-one when she was deported and is listed as ‘missing’.

Waltraut Flatow was born in Berlin on 08.09.1926. She entered school in Reppen in 1933 and changed to a school in Berlin in 1940. She was registered in Fehrbelliner Strasse. At sixteen she was deported. The exact location of her death is not known.

Horst Ludwig was born in Berlin on 17.07.1934. He entered the Jewish primary school No. 6 in 1941. He was eight when he was deported to Riga and murdered.

Agnes Rosenthal was born in Berlin on 22.08.1878 and worked as cook in the Childrens’ Home. This was also her registered address. She was sixty-four years old and is registered as ‘missing’.

Gertrud Cohn was born in Berlin-Neukoelln on 04.02.1930. She entered the primary school No. 123 in 1938 but had to change on 10.01.1938. She had to leave school altogether on 30.06.1942. Her last place of residence was Fehrbelliner Strasse 92. She was deported when she was twelve years old and is listed as ‘missing’.

Ida Bamberger was born in Stettin on 17.09.1891. She was the last manager of the Childrens’ Home. She was in the deportation center in the Grosse Hamburger Strasse before she was deported. She was then fifty one years old and is listed as ‘missing’.

Eva-Charlotte Danziger was born in Berlin on 11.05.1932. She attended the Jewish Girls' School until it closed on 30.06.1942. She was ten years old when she was deported and murdered. She is registered as ‘missing’.

Benjamin Sauerstroem was born in Berlin on 10.10.1933. He started at the Jewish Primary School for Boys No. 6 in 1940. There is a Declaration of Means dated 24.11.1942. He was nine years old when he was deported and later declared dead.

Margot Jakobius was born on 23.12.1927 in Danzig. She began school in Danzig in 1934 and it is unclear when she came to Berlin. However she is registered as living in Fehrbelliner Strasse in 1939. She was working there as a young helper and as forced labourer. She was murdered in Auschwitz when she was fifteen years old.

Erika Haitner, born on 23.05.1927 in Berlin and Meta Haitner, born on 28.11.1928 in Berlin. Both worked as young helpers in the Childrens’ Home. Both are listed as ‘missing’.

Rose Ilse Kusel,born 04.04.1937 in Frankfurt a.M. She lived in Pirmasens , then in Berlin Schönhauser Str. 58, then Jewish Childrenshome Fehrbelliner Str. 92. She was deported from Auerbachsche Waisenanstalt.

Tolia Grajonza was born in Koenigsberg on 09.02.1929 but entered the school in the August Strasse, Berlin in 1935. She could not continue her education for long as she was forced to work as young helper in the Fehrbelliner Strasse. Her Declaration of Means has the same date as her deportation. She was deported to Riga and then Auschwitz where she was murdered. On the date of her deportation she was thirteen years old.

Balbina Bielschowski, nee Berlowitz, was born in Posen on 11.03.1874. She worked in the Childrens’ Home as seamstress. She completed a Declaration of Means on 10.06.1942. Half a year later she was deported at the age of sixty-two. Her date of death is given as 20.12.1942.

Heinz Josef Caspary was born in Koenigsberg on 04.10.1926 where he also started school in 1933. In October 1939 he changed schools and presumably came to Berlin. On 31.09.1942 he left school. He was sixteen when he was murdered. (His name is listed as No. 955 )

Gertrud Behrendt was born in Pasewalk on 20.04.1899. At the plebiscite in 1939 she gave her address as Fehrbelliner Str. 92. During the last months there she worked as a forced labourer at Siemens & Halske/Wernerwerk. Her Declaration of Means was filled in on 13.01.1943. She was deported from the deportation center in Grosse Hamburger Strasse when she was 44 years old. She is listed as ‘missing’.

Wanda Walk was born on 11.05.1934 in Emden. She entered school in 1940 in Hamburg and had to change to a school in Berlin on 03.11.41. She had to leave school on 30.06.(1943?). She was not yet nine years old when she was murdered in Auschwitz. She is registered as ‘missing’.

Ralph Wisgurski was born in Berlin on 16.10.1931. He attended the Adass Israel school in 1938. He changed school on 24.10.1939 and again on 01.04.1941. There is a Declaration of Means dated 04.03.1943. He was twelve when he arrived in Auschwitz. He is registered as dead.

Inge-Klara Hirsch was born in Berlin on 07.06.1926 und was registered a resident in the Fehrbelliner Strasse 92 in 1939. The Declaration of Means is dated 10.03.1943. Two days later she was deported and murdered at the age of seventeen. She is registered as ‘missing’.

Edith Rosenberger was born in Berlin on 19.06.1926. She was registered a resident in the Fehrbelliner Str. 92 in 1939. She was seventeen when she was deported to Theresienstadt. Then she was sent to Auschwitz where she was murdered. She is registered as ‘missing’.

Carla-Dorothea Wagenberg was born in Dessau on 10.12.1923. She worked in the Childrens’ Home as children’s nurse. She then lived in the agricultural training estate Neuendorf, near Fuerstenwalde. From there she was deported to Auschwitz together with other young people. Carla was accepted into the Girls Orchestra as she could play the Flute. From Auschwitz she was moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated together with her sister Sylvia.

Sylvia Wagenberg was born in Dessau on 11.06.1928. She started school in Dessau in 1935 and had to change schools on 28.02.1938 and again on 09.01.1939. She was registered as resident in Fehrbelliner Strasse 92 like her older sister Carla. Both were freed in Bergen-Belsen (see chapter 11).

Ruth Suessmann was born on 21.11.1937 in Berlin.

Gittel (Brigitte) Suessman, born on 07.09.1939 in Berlin. Both lived in Christinenstrasse 35 and attended the kindergarten during the day, even when they were already resident in the Mannheimer’sche Altersheim. When the deportations began, their mother went underground with both girls. When it became too difficult to survive in their hiding place, the mother took the children to Weimar. They were betrayed whilst in hiding and were both deported to Auschwitz. Ruth was six years old, Gittel was four when they were murdered (see chapter 8).

Edith Meyer was born in Frankfurt a.M. on 26.02.1923. At the time of the plebiscite in 1939 she lived in the Fehrbelliner Strasse 92. She was deported to Sobibor and murdered.

Franziska Baumann was born on 03.02.1913 in Hammelburg/Bavaria. She worked as an ‘Intern’ in the Fehrbelliner Strasse. In 1939 she emigrated to Den Haag. From there she was deported to Sobibor and murdered.

Elsbeth Bober, nee Ascher, was born on 16.06.1907 in Berlin. Her father was not Jewish. She was registered in Fehrbelliner Strasse 92. She was murdered in Ravensbrueck.

I have more names of former inhabitants of the Childrens’ Home in Fehrbelliner Strasse, for whom I could not find any details in the Memorial Book for the Murdered Jews of Berlin.

Aaron Süssman, the brother of Tosca K., whose story is in this book, was shot during his flight from a labour camp in Poland in 1944.

Sonia Süssmann, who went underground with her mother Sima Süssmann, was betrayed and deported with one of the last transports leaving Berlin. Both were murdered (see chapter 3).

There are a number of former residents of the Childrens’ Home whose fate is still unclear. There is hope that some have survived.

Kaete Baruch was born on 07.01.1931 in Neumark/Brandenburg. She started school in 1937 in Friedeberg, changed schools on 23.08.1938 and ended her schooling on 20.11.1940.

Ruth Bergmann was born in Berlin on 01.07.1928. She started school in Pankow in 1935. She changed schools on 25.04.1938. In 1939 she was registered as resident in the Childrens’ Home in Fehrbelliner Strasse.

Bernd Baruch was born in Neudorf/Netzekreis on 05.09.1927. He began his schooling in Neudorf, he changed schools on 02.05.1938 and then left. There is a Declaration of Means dated 16.03.1942.

Ursula Dembinski was born on 30.06.1930 in Berlin. She was registered in 1936 at the primary school No. 4, and then……?

Max Fahrgast was born on 30.08.1919 in Berlin. He started primary school No.162 in 1926. He changed schools and then…..?

Inge Gerson was born 07.06.1926 in Berlin. She entered the primary school No. 153 in 1934 and changed schools on 29.04.1935. And then …….?

Juergen Goldberg was born 02.09 (or 09.09) in Berlin. In 1934 he was registered in the school Kaiserstrasse 29/30, Berlin and changed schools on 27.04.1938. And then …..?

Ingeborg Haase was born 15.08.1927 in Liegnitz/Silesia. She was a so-called ‘Geltungsjude’(half-Jewish). She entered primary school No. 204 on 06.10.1944, where she was allowed to stay until 1941. She left school altogether in 1942. She was employed under forced labour conditions by Zeiss-Ikon. Her Declaration of Means is dated 28.02.1943. She was deported to Theresienstadt on 17.03.1943 with the 4th Large Transport for old people. She arrived in Auschwitz on 06.10.1944. Did she survive? Her name does not appear in the Book of Commemorations.

Guenther Kaufmann, born 22.02.1928 in Essen. He started school in 1934 in Brandenburg and changed to a school in Berlin on 09.02.1936.

Ruth Mamlock was born in Berlin on 07.02.1931. Her mother was not Jewish. She started at the primary school No. 166 in 1937 and left it on 15.01.1939. Could she emmigrate?

David Mastbaum was born in Muenster on 12.04.1926. His mother was not Jewish. He started school in Borgsdorf near Berlin in 1932 and changed schools on 22.04.1938. He left school on 01.12.1938. His fate remains unknown.

Gusti Meyer was born on 12.04.1929 in Koethen. In 1936 He was still attending the Protestant School in Koethen. He did not change to a school in Berlin until 16.03.1941. He left school on 19.03.1942 with the entry: ‘to Koethen’.

Karl-Heinz Muehrberg was born on 09.10.1923 in Ahlbeck. He had Russian nationality. He started school in Ahlbeck in 1930 and changed schools on 03.05.1937. It is possible that he then came to the Children’s Home in Fehrbelliner Strasse in Berlin.

Peggi Rosenblueth was born in Berln on 09.03.1927. She had Polish nationality. She had to change her school on 23.10.1934. Were she and her family amongst the Jews who were sent back to Poland in 1938?

Eva-Maria Salomon was born 15.10.1927 in Leipzig. She changed schools on 11.08.1938, and presumably went to Berlin. She fled to Chile and died in 2010.

Helga Salomon was born 08.09.1925 in Leipzig. In 1938 she probably came to the Fehrbelliner Strasse, together with her sister Eva-Maria. The mother of Eva Maria and Helga died in Germany. The father and the two girls saved their live and went to Chile in 1939.

Kurt Sterngast, born 11.01.1921 in Berlin. He had Polish nationality. In 1927 he entered the 288th boys community school. He lived in the Fehrbelliner Strasse 92 as of 1932. He changed schools on 12.04.1934. In 1938 he emigrated to Palestine and later committed suicide.

Max Eliaha Sterngast was born on 30.08.1919 in Berlin and, like his brother he was Polish. In 1925 he first attended the Boys’s Community School No.288, later a non-confessional School in Danziger Strasse. He lived with his brother in the Fehrbelliner Strasse from 1932. In 1939 he emigrated to England and later to Israel (see chapter 7).

I know a few other names of residents of the Childrens’ Home. They could go into hiding, emigrate or were rescued by the organisation Kindertransport to England, but without their families. Some even survived the concentration camps.

Ilse Bober was born in Berlin on 09.06.1928. She started school in 1935 and changed on 02.05.1938. After the school was closed in 1942 she worked as forced labourer. She was classified as Jewish like her sister:

Ingeborg Bober was born on 16.05.1927. She started at the primary school No. 156 in 1934 and changed schools on 27.05.1938. She had to leave school on 31.03.1942. She, too, probably had to do forced labour. There is a Declaration of Means dated 19.10.1944. Part of the time she lived illegally; both sisters were deported to Theresienstadt with the 112th Transport for Old People. Both survived the camp. After the liberation Ilse lived in Friedrichshain, Ingeborg in Kreuzberg.

Wolfgang Blumenreich was born 10.12.1924 in Swinemuende. He entered primary school No.35 in Berlin early in 1931, and changed schools on 29.04.1935. He survived the Holocaust. In 1955 he lived in the Ahawah-Kinderheim in Kiriat, Bialik in Israel.

Regina G. was born in Berlin on 09.07.1924 and was also registered as Jewish. She entered primary school No. 173 in 1930. After she left school she was a forced labourer at Blaupunkt. She survived and lived after liberation in Berlin-Schoeneberg

Waltraut Levy was born in Berlin on 21.05.1932. Her father was not Jewish. In 1939 she entered the private Jewish School for Girls No. 2 in Kaiserstrasse. She survived and lived after the liberation in Berlin Charlottenburg.

Hartmuth Loewy was born in Berlin on 26.03.1930. His mother was not Jewish. He started primary school No. 249 in 1937 and changed schools on 09.06.1938. He left school on 01.10.1941. He survived and lived after 1945 in Berlin Charlottenburg.

Ruth-Eva Mueller was born in Schmalkalden on 22.03.1930. She entered school in 1934 and had to change schools on 13.02.1939, together with her sister Jutta, who had been born on 14.05.1928. Jutta left school in 1941. Ruth-Eva could emigrate to Bolivia on 15.02.1940.

Alfred Nathanson was born in Berlin on 12. or 16. 02. 1935. His mother was not Jewish. He entered the Jewish Primary School Nr. 8 in 1941 and changed schools on 03. 10. 1942 where he stayed until the school closed on 16. 06. 1944. He was deported with the 107. Transport for Old People on 16. 06. 1944 to Theresienstadt. He survived the camp. His sister

Rita Nathanson was born in Berlin on 29.03.1937. She arrived in the Childrens’ Home in Fehrbelliner Str. in 1942, and was then returned to her ‘Aryan’ mother.

Selly Rohrmann was born in Berlin on 30.09.1928. He emigrated to Palestine on 10.12.1939.

Arno Sallein was born in Berlin on 10.03.1923. He was registered as Jewish. In 1929 he entered the primary school No. 15-17 and changed schools on 5.11.1935. On 24.11.1944 he was deported to Theresienstadt with the 113th Transport for Old People. He survived the camp and lived after the liberation in Deggendorf.

The following details are taken from my correspondence with Tosca K..

Paula Kroner, who was one of the teachers in the Kinderheim, emigrated to the USA. She lived in San Francisco.

Friedel Rosenbaum lives in Florida.

Jacob Littmann lived in Los Angeles.

Miss Weissenberg, too, emigrated to the USA.

The twins Ruth and Regina Anders live in Israel today (see chapters 10 and 12).

Only a few children were lucky enough to reach England with a Kindertransport and thus to save their lives. Later many went to Israel or to the USA.

Guenther (Gideon) B. ( see chapter 5 part 1)was born in Berlin in 1924. He lived in the Childrens’ Home, Fehrbelliner Strasse, for many years, at first only during the day, after 1938 he also slept there. On 01.12.1938 he left Germany with the first Kindertransport. Later he lives in Israel and died January 2010. Together with him left:

Ernst Winter, born on 21.05.1924 in Germany. His father had died, his mother, like Ernst had Polish nationality. He entered the primary school No. 116 on 09.04.1937 and then changed schools.

Tosca Süssmann, married name K. (see chapter 3 part 1) left Berlin in August 1939 with a Kindertransport to England. She later travelled to the USA and married Ignatz K., who had also been in the Children’s Home, Fehrbelliner Strasse 92.

Translation Gerti Wilford