Emilie Bergmann: correspondence from Otwock ghetto

This collection consists of correspondence from Emilie Bergmann who was deported to Otwock ghetto, sent to her daughter Käthe in Hamburg and later in England. She describes her life in the ghetto, the scarcity of food and requests for food parcels, her health problems and her longing to be released.

Emilie Bergmann (née Rosenblatt) was born in Hamburg in 1872. In 1904 she got married to Gabriel Bergmann who was visiting Hamburg from the United States where he had become an American citizen after leaving Kozienice, near Warsaw. They had a child, Käthe (Katarzyna) in 1905. Gabriel became disenchanted with life in Germany and returned to the United States in 1922. Emilie did not wish to leave Hamburg. In October 1938, along with other Polish Jews living in Germany Emilie and Käthe were deported to Zbaszyn internment camp. After 9 months in the camp, the Red Cross helped Käthe, through a sponsor in Hamburg, to retrain as a physiotherapist and then sent her to England. At the outbreak of the war Emilie was deported to Otwock, a satellite of the Warsaw ghetto. It is unknown when she perished.

Chronological

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Donated by Kathleen Becker

2009/35