I’ve been going through more of the family papers and came across an odd envelope.
I had been aware that my grandparents tried to help Jewish refugees in Europe in the days before WW2, but I knew no details.
Anyway, this packet contained letters from 1938/39 from two sisters, named Karoline and Charlotte Jellinek, who had had to leave their home in Bergenhund (?) and were in Vienna, and the idea was for them to come over as domestic servants. Unfortunately only one work permit was issued and it seems that the sisters decided to stay together because my father does not remember either arriving. Their last letter, in Feb 1939, is quite desperate and distressing and then there is nothing. One can only assume the worst: two more victims of that utter evil.
Wow. Have you considered finding somewhere Holocaust-related to donate that and anything similar you might find? (This is assuming you weren’t the person who asked in CS recently for a good location to donate photos of a Nazi concentration camp.)
Also, aren’t there organizations that you can check with, which will tell you the fate of a person caught up in the Holocaust. Obviously, they don’t have everyone figured out, but maybe there’s a chance.
I have included some details in the spoiler box below - if Quartz would prefer not to have this info here, I won’t be offended if a MOD removes it.
[spoiler]Karoline Jellinek was born in 1879. During the war she was in Wien, Austria. Deported with Transport from Wien to Maly trostinec on 14/09/1942. Karoline perished in 1942 in Maly Trostinec, Belorussia (USSR). This information is based on a List of victims from Austria found in the Namentliche Erfassung der oesterreichischen Holocaustopfer, Dokumentationsarchiv des oesterreichischen Widerstandes (Documentation Centre for Austrian Resistance), Wien.
[Note: There is no “Charlotte Jellinek” listed, so maybe she did make it out after all. I hope so.]
One of the quotes on the Yad Vashem site is from a man in his last letter before his death in 1941: “… I should like someone to remember that there once lived a person called David Berger”.
I am sorry, Quartz, that this story had no happy ending.
Yet the names of Charlotte and Karoline have been remembered, for a brief time and by a few people, but remembered nonetheless.
They will be in my thoughts tonight and I hope that over time others will find this thread, and they too will remember that there once lived two sisters called Karoline and Charlotte Jellinek.
I just want to second this not just for the history of the holocaust, but for family history.
I’ve been doing some genealogy research into my own tree, and I think these letters should be shared so family members can know more of the story of their family. There has been quite a few genealogy blog postings lately about people sharing records such as slave registers to help those descendants find out more about their families rather then hiding away that past as something too sad & shameful. For every record, no matter how tragic or dark the ending, someday, someone may want to find it to know more of the story of one of their ancestors.
I’ve received a PM saying that the Jellineks Wallenstein found were not actually the ones my grandparents tried to help. Karoline and Charlotte actually both made it first to Britain and then Israel.
I am so pleased to read this. For some reason this thread has weighed heavily over the years. If you have any more details on how the sisters made it to the UK it would be nice to close the circle.
Great news. I have to say that it gave me a start when I first read the names. My wife’s last name is very similar to Jellinek, and her mother’s name was Charlotte.
