Ilse Meyer (Marcus)
Vita
(USHMM) Ilse Marcus (originally Meyer) is the daughter of Berthold and Elfriede Meyer. She was born on June 23, 1914 in Breslau, Germany, and her younger brother Ernst was born in 1918. Berthold Meyer owned a prosperous clothing store, and after Ilse married economist Kurt Marcus in 1935, the young couple lived with Ilse's parents in an apartment above the store. On the night of Kristallnacht, gangs broke the window of the family store, and looters carried away the merchandise. The following morning, storm troopers entered the apartment and arrested Berthold, Ernst and Kurt. They were released three weeks later after promising to emigrate from Germany. The family hoped to go to the United States, but as they had very high visa application numbers, they decided to book tickets on the St. Louis for Havana where they could wait until they received permission to enter the United States. Kurt's brother had already gone to Havana, and they planned to meet him there. When the ship arrived in Havana on May 27, 1939, the Cuban government prohibited the passengers from disembarking. Kurt's brother approached the ship on a small boat to wave and shout out greetings. After the ship was forced to return to Europe, the Marcus and Meyer families disembarked in Belgium and spent the next year as refugees in Brussels. However, after Germany invaded Belgium in May 1940, the Belgians arrested Berthold, Ernst and Kurt as enemy aliens and deported them to the St. Cyprien camp in southern France. They later were transferred to the Gurs concentration camp where they were interned as Jews. The women were able to correspond with them through mid-1942. Still in Belgium, Ilse and her mother were ordered to don a yellow star. Instead, they entrusted their belongings to former neighbors and went into hiding in two different safe houses run by members of the Belgian resistance. Ilse carried false papers and worked in a laundry during the day. However, in early January 1944 Ilse and Elfriede's former neighbors informed authorities of their Jewish identities and whereabouts. Ilse was arrested at the laundry and taken to a police station where she met her mother. From there the two women were brought to Malines and deported to Auschwitz on Convoy 23 on January 15, 1944. Ilse's mother was killed immediately upon arrival. Ilse was tattooed and then assigned to forced labor. Ilse first worked in a field carrying heavy stones and then was sent to work in a munitions plant where she and several other women engaged in sabotage. One year later, on January 27, 1945, Ilse was liberated by the Soviet Union. She boarded an evacuation train to the Netherlands and then made her way back to Belgium to await any surviving family members. No one returned. Ilse's father perished in Majdanek, and her brother and husband died in Auschwitz. After the war, Ilse decided to immigrate to the United States to be near Kurt's brother, her only surviving relative. She never remarried.
Q: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1156867
dort Foto des Bekleidungshauses Berthold Meyer, Breslau
(USHMM) Ilse Marcus collection
Documents and correspondence illustrating the experiences of Ilse Marcus, who with her husband Kurt, attempted to emigrate from Breslau, Germany aboard the MS St. Louis in May 1939 with Ilse's parents Elfriede and Berthold Marcus and her brother Ernst. The family disembarked in Belgium. Most of the family was later arrested and deported, and all family members except Ilse were killed. Collection also includes correspondence from Else Marcus (Kurt's mother) who did not emigrate from Nazi Germany and did not survive.
Q: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn50829
(MK) St. Louis-episode S. 77-79
[after being turned back:] England took the people who had short-term visas, Holland ook people with small children... And the rest of the people who didn't have a chance to go to England and Holland were sent either to France or Belgium. So we went to Belgium. And you see, in fact, the only Jews who were saved were those who were lucky enough to be in England.
We arrived in Belgium in June 1939, and we were there together until May 10, 1940, when the Germans came in. The Belgians regarded us not as Jews first but as aliens, as Germans. And they were very much afraid: Germans coming in and Germsn are sitting in their country,,, So they sent all the German Jewish men to France. My husband, my father, and my brother. (...)
The men were taken first to a camp called Gurs. (...)
The whole time, we were living in brussels with false ID cards, which were even registered in city hall.
[beide in Brüssel verhaftet]
arrived in Auschwitz in January 1944, number A-74560
work in a munitions factory, making hand grenades, sabotage
in Auschwitz for 16 months, from January 1944 tothe end of the war in May 1945
Death March to Ravensbrück, by railroad to Neustadt. That was the last camp.
after liberation the Americans took Mrs.Marcus and others to Holland. From Holland they were taken to Belgium.
contacts her brother-inlaw Fred Marcus and her uncle Adolf Rosenberg in New York, to get affidavits for her
in New York worked in a factory for a time
after that became a bookkeeper (174-175)
on American antisemitism 195
lost her faith, staunch supporter of Israel 197
works a a bookkeeper at Fordham University for the Jesuit order
never remarried
(DC) 17. Januar 1944: Mit dem 23. Transport des RSHA aus Belgien sind 657 Juden aus dem Lager Malines eingetroffen. In dem Transport befinden sich 309 Männer und 37 Jungen sowie 286 Frauen und 25 Mädchen. Nach der Selektion werden 140 Männer, die die Nummern 172296 bis 172435 erhalten, und 98 Frauen, die mit den Nummern 74512 bis 74609 gekennzeichnet werden, als Häftlinge ins Lager eingewiesen. Die übrigen 419 Menschen werden in den Gaskammern getötet. (S. 707)
(W) Das Konzentrationslager Neustadt-Glewe war ein Außenlager des Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück und befand sich in der Nähe des Ortes Neustadt-Glewe im Landkreis Ludwigslust-Parchim. (...) Ab Januar 1945 wurde das Lager Ziel von der SS sogenannter „Evakuierungstransporte“ aus östlich gelegenen Konzentrationslagern. De facto waren das Todesmärsche von KZ-Häftlings-Kolonnen. Es sollen sich bis zu 5000 Häftlinge hier aufgehalten haben. Die Befreiung des Lagers erfolgte am 2. Mai 1945 durch Truppen der Roten Armee.
Q: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KZ_Neustadt-Glewe
Notes
Vater Berthold Meyer
Mutter Elfriede Meyer
Bruder Ernst Meyer 1918
Ehemann Kurt Marcus 1906 - 1942