Letter from Amely Krug to Joan Harris
Object numberM2020/023:022
TitleLetter from Amely Krug to Joan Harris
Creator Amely Krug
DescriptionLetter from Amely Krug to Joan Harris on 17 May 1947. This letter was later sent on to Joan's cousin Inge Herrmann (M2020/023:021). It appears that Joan had contacted Amely on 2 February enquiring after the fate of Kaethe Manneberg and her family. Kaethe was a friend of Amely while they both lived in Berlin. Amely relays that she knows little about the family's current status. However, she speaks of her knowledge of the Manneberg's experiences prior to their deportation to Theresienstadt, relaying how the Jews were hardly being supplied with food and that she was attempting to help by sharing supplies, up until the family was deported.
Amely speaks of Kaethe moving back in with her mother (Jenny Manneberg) despite what seems to be a possible cancer diagnosis that should have seen her hospitalised. Not long after, both Jenny and Kaethe were deported. Amely comments that they were forced to leave everything behind. She confirms that she knows that Kaethe acted as a nurse while in Theresienstadt. Amely says that she has been unable to find out anything from Inge Herrmann's parents Otto and Regina Herrmann.
Part of a collection of over 60 letters to Inge-Ruth Poppert (nee Herrmann) from 1937 to 1957, as well as memorabilia and personal documents that detail the Holocaust experiences of the Herrmann family, and the establishment Inge's life in Sydney, Australia.
Inge was born on 12 October 1922 in Wolmirstedt, near Magdeburg, Germany to Otto and Kate-Regina Herrmann (nee Manneberg). Inge lived in Wolmirstedt, but attended school in Madgeburg from 1933. The family relocated to the city of Magdeburg in 1935 where Otto owned two shops. Due to anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish legislation, Otto had lost his clothing business in Wolmirstedt. However, from 1937 with the increasing Aryanisation of Jewish assets and property, the Herrmann family again forcibly lost their remaining businesses and way of life.
Despite the worsening risk to all Jews in Germany, Inge's parents initially resisted emigration, though in 1937 they decided that their daughter should leave. Inge was approved to go to Australia after being assessed in Berlin. She arrived in Sydney via London in September 1938.
Otto and Regina lived in increasing poverty and anxiety. Otto was arrested in 1938 and sent to Buchenwald for a brief period before being released. In October 1942 they were deported to Theresienstadt. Inge received no sign of life from her parents from 1944 and only learned years after the war that they were deported to Auschwitz in October 1944 where they were murdered.
Amely speaks of Kaethe moving back in with her mother (Jenny Manneberg) despite what seems to be a possible cancer diagnosis that should have seen her hospitalised. Not long after, both Jenny and Kaethe were deported. Amely comments that they were forced to leave everything behind. She confirms that she knows that Kaethe acted as a nurse while in Theresienstadt. Amely says that she has been unable to find out anything from Inge Herrmann's parents Otto and Regina Herrmann.
Part of a collection of over 60 letters to Inge-Ruth Poppert (nee Herrmann) from 1937 to 1957, as well as memorabilia and personal documents that detail the Holocaust experiences of the Herrmann family, and the establishment Inge's life in Sydney, Australia.
Inge was born on 12 October 1922 in Wolmirstedt, near Magdeburg, Germany to Otto and Kate-Regina Herrmann (nee Manneberg). Inge lived in Wolmirstedt, but attended school in Madgeburg from 1933. The family relocated to the city of Magdeburg in 1935 where Otto owned two shops. Due to anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish legislation, Otto had lost his clothing business in Wolmirstedt. However, from 1937 with the increasing Aryanisation of Jewish assets and property, the Herrmann family again forcibly lost their remaining businesses and way of life.
Despite the worsening risk to all Jews in Germany, Inge's parents initially resisted emigration, though in 1937 they decided that their daughter should leave. Inge was approved to go to Australia after being assessed in Berlin. She arrived in Sydney via London in September 1938.
Otto and Regina lived in increasing poverty and anxiety. Otto was arrested in 1938 and sent to Buchenwald for a brief period before being released. In October 1942 they were deported to Theresienstadt. Inge received no sign of life from her parents from 1944 and only learned years after the war that they were deported to Auschwitz in October 1944 where they were murdered.
Production placeGermany
Production date 1947-05-17
Object nameletters
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 215.00 mm
height: 275.00 mm
Language
- German Spandau, Kaiserstr. 3
17 May 1947
My dearest Miss Harris:
I was very very happy, when your lovely letter from the 2nd of February arrived here. Tears of joy were wept as well when your lovely package arrived, which for us was full of unnatainable treasure. How could we compensate for it? You have no idea how pleased we were, we have, despite all worries, a nice Pentecost now. And we owe that just to you. It is so terribly hard under these circumstances in Germany getting through with a sick man (stomach, sugar and circulatory disturbance) and with a brother with lung diseases (because of his lung shot in the first world war). But still hoping for better times. I do not want to moan, we all have the hope that it will get better eventually.
I would have loved to tell you something positive about my investigations of Kaethe and her relatives, that is why I did not write immediately, but unfortunately I did not find success. It is quite complicated here, because many files are damaged and where acquaintances once lived there is just a ruin now. So I know that Kaethe communicated with a lady, who was married to an 'Arier' and lived in Kaiserallee. I forget the name unfortunately and the letter from her, which I kept carefully, was also burned. But I had visited her before, and could return to her house which I still remember well, but it was a ruin and the neighbors could not give me any information. I had visited her in the beginning of 44, but the woman was worried at the time that they would arrest her, and she wondered why I still sent Kaethe packages. I wrote a a friend, but still no answer. Post in Germany takes longer than to America.
I also have no information about Mr. and Mrs. Lemme. Old telephone directories are not available anymore. In the new ones, which are roughly 3cm thick, is just a (Selter)fabricant Fritz Lemme. There is no Berlin address book from old circulations anymore and the new ones have not been published yet. The people who do not live here have no idea about the minor details which make us fail. Shoes can not be soled, because there are no soles and above all there are no nails. There are even no sewing needles, or pins, or packing paper, or string, no clothes, shoes, nothing to buy. When something can be done to help, than just for victims of fascism, maybe for construction workers. I will keep on searching, never lose courage and keep on investigating. Do you have at least a little evidence of where you used to live. Maybe I can get more information about Mr. and Mrs. Lemme at the registration office?
If Erich Manneberg got married, I would know that as Kaethe would have told me for sure, because her brother got often into trouble and she often was worried about that. And when she did not see a way out, she told me about her suffering. Kaethe's mother protected him and Kaethe loved her mother so much and did not want her to have more problems, so she was quiet and did not complain about her brother. If he would have married, she would have told me, because I was at hers shortly before she got transported and brought her eggs and something else (the jews got so little to eat, they would starve after all) at this time she was afraid that she had to go but still she was hoping that this would not happen and two days later her colleagues at 'Hilfsausschuss' told me she should have gone into a hospital because of breast cancer suspicions but from there she went back home in order to stay with her old mother. She (her mother) would have been picked up alone. The Nazi's picked them up from their apartment, everything had to be left behind. Because Kaethe was a nurse in Theresienstadt she must be well known. It is such a pity that her confirmation card with her address that was sent to me also burned. That would have been just one piece of evidence. One of Kaethe's friends fled to England in the nick of time and she promised to care about Guenther. It was not Cilly, so far as I know, and Thea got married in Paris. The brother Heinrich was deported at the same time as Kaethe, I think. Inge's parents, from whom I have not heard anything yet, assumed the management from old people's home in Babelsberg and were still there at that time.
The hard and awful winter is over now and the nice German spring is almost over, at least the fruit trees are starting to bloom and the lilac was there already. We wait wishful for rain now, otherwise everything would dry up. Could you imagine that there are not even potatoes?
Kaethe always told me you were fine, but because of your letters she thought that you were homesick, because of that your mother was worried. An old person has difficulties facing new conditions but you were still young when you emigrated. And you do not feel sorry for it, even if everything is not like your expectations or your dreams sometimes.
I will finish for today. I will keep on researching and I will report.
Again I would like to say thank you for the delightful package, which was for us such a ray of hope in that time. We never get anything, because we neither have relatives abroad nor in Germany. Therefore we are just alone.
With warm regards from my husband as well
Your thankful
Amely Krug.
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Kim Poppert
In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for supporting this archival project.