Elisabeth Luz

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Elisabeth Luz, around 1945

Elisabeth Luz (born August 22, 1888 in Hottingen (city of Zurich) ; † April 5, 1971 in Männedorf , Switzerland), called Aunt Elisabeth , was the daughter of the organist and music director Johannes Luz and Clara Elisabeth Secchi from Chur . Her great achievement is the organization of a handwritten exchange program for letters from involuntarily separated Jewish family members. Parents who had lived in the German sphere of influence since 1939 corresponded through them with their children, who had been fleeing the Germans in exile without parents . She mainly worked for the aid organization of the Protestant Churches in Switzerland .

Her life's work: The correspondence via Switzerland

"Left without an address". Recipient from Berlin abducted as a Jew.

Elisabeth Luz attended the private girls' school "Dameninstitut Wetli" in Zurich . She initially worked as a voluntary welfare worker and poor worker in the Protestant parish of Neumünster (Zurich) , together with the religious socialist Hermann Kutter . Around 1919 she moved to Männedorf, then in 1936 to Stäfa , where she lived until 1962 and from where she organized the letter project.

From 1939 Elisabeth Luz brokered letters between Jewish parents who remained in the German Reich (including territories that had been attacked and incorporated) and their children who had been abroad, especially to France, who lived here as unaccompanied refugees, mostly in homes. The first group supported in this way lived in the Château de la Guette until the German invasion. The mediation became all the more urgent when there was no more mail between the enemy states after the beginning of the war in September 1939 . Luz's help consisted of partly copying out each other's letters and then forwarding these copies, partly of receiving the messages contained therein, e.g. B. on the condition, the current stay u. in letters under his own name and under the pretense of a personal reference as a relative or friend and thus concealed the origin of the letters. At the same time, because of the censorship , it was necessary to shorten the letters by some information, Luz himself called it “preliminary censorship”. The parents receiving the letters could easily see from whom the message really came. The mailing of letters increased steadily until 1944 because the address of "Aunt Elisabeth" was passed on to the children who had fled in the homes or to the forcibly orphaned parents in the German Reich . To save postage, there were collective letters from the homes, some with clear drawings by the children. Most of the children at that time were between 8 and 15 years old.

After the occupation of northern and central France, the writing children lived primarily in the unoccupied part of France, later, when the south was also occupied by Germany, as people in hiding and internally displaced persons. With the increasing German mass murder of Jews all over Europe, letters to parents in the Reich (Germany or occupied Austria) were returned to Switzerland by the post with the note "departed - address unknown", thus the connection had failed because the recipients in the concentration camp received no mail or had already been murdered. Elisabeth Luz was accordingly sad, her efforts in such cases in vain.

Most of the Jewish parents whose mutual letters Luz conveyed to the children fell victim to the Holocaust by 1945. If they survived, families would meet again, e.g. B. were rescued by child transports or going into hiding. Some grateful survivors visited Elisabeth Luz in Switzerland after 1945 or continued to write to her, which she reported on in her essay from 1968. Some of the children, especially those from the Rothschild project, came to the USA, which is why Elisabeth Luz became known there too. Photographic material about her ended up in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . A collection of 3,000 of these letters from Luz's holdings also ended up in the USA and is being processed there by Debórah Dwork and colleagues at Clark University .

Testimonials from the letters

"I only really live on the days when I get mail."

“Mom, you can't imagine how pleased I was with your letter. I jumped for joy I was hopping all over the room. You very dearest, cute, good, sweet little Muttileinchen! Only dress warmly when you are cold. I always have my work bag with me in the cupboard. "

- Titi, 12 years old, original spelling

“You know what, Vatili? I would really like to see a photo of you again! Nothing to do? Countless, very heartfelt greetings to your great (terribly) loving daughter. "

- Ursel, from the project's hotel management school

"There is no level place here, everything goes up and downhill!"

- NN, after the further flight into the Massif Central, La Bourboule

“We got a piece of garden from our baroness where we can plant everything ourselves. That’s great. We also got a new piano. The educator who is like a mother to me teaches me. She can play fabulous. We also have a gramophone and it has to play during every meal (maybe as a supplement?) That is fabulous! "

- Gerda, 12 years. All letters quoted from Luz, 1968

“We hope that the new year will be better than what has now flown by. We just have to trust in God and never give up. Soon the sun will shine on us too, then we will find the way to happiness (thanks to Elisabeth Luz will follow) "

- Inge and Edith, undated, original spelling

“My darling Hanna Ruth, dear Aunt Élisabeth, I must finally bring myself to tell you two if only I'd had the time in the last four weeks. I haven't heard from you since August 2nd. But this letter is not supposed to show you how sad I am. And that's why I preferred to wait a while, my dear child. There is no reason for me to complain, say other people, but nevertheless: I suffer from the fact that your dear grandfather, who is my father, had to leave us and go on transport. Likewise Aunt Ella and another uncle. They are said to be fine back there. I hope God will make it easy for them. All in all, he (his grandfather) had a good life, and given his old age, his life is behind him. You see, there is definitely something new. The weather is still pretty good. In love, your mother "

- The mother to her daughter Hanna Klopstock, geb. November 7, 1924 in Fürstenwalde / Spree , she lived in La Guette (1939/1940), via Elisabeth Luz, dispatched from this on September 23, 1942

“I pray every day that God may continue to protect us, me and Werner, so that we can see you again someday, my dearest. If only my dear Werner can be saved! Take care of him, my beloved child, and keep on being brave. Never lose your cheerfulness! I'll fight for you to the last! In love, I hug you, your mother "

- Hanna's mother to her daughter, via Elisabeth Luz, same date as before

See also

literature

  • Letter from Lotti Rosenfeld: Postcard v. LR to Elisabeth Luz, September 22, 1943; Two letters from LR to EL, September 27 and December 5, 1943, pieces numbered 50g, 51a, 51b, in: Debórah Dwork et al., Flight from the Reich, Norton, p. 389; not in the Dutch edition: Exodus. Joden op de vlucht uit het Derde Rijk. Elmar, Delft 2011. ISBN 903892013X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Germaine de Rothschild, wife of Edouard de Rothschild , through her, the castle of La Guette was for a short time a residence for groups of Jewish, especially German-speaking children. After the occupation of northern France by the Germans in 1940, children and staff were brought to southern France in small groups, mainly with the help of the Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE). Older young people, like many French, fled to the south by bike. In addition to La Guette, the French Rothschild family made other houses available for such purposes until they finally had to flee themselves.
  2. ↑ Luz, Quartier Ebnet in Stäfa, 1936 (incorrect information at the USHMM, where Ebnet, Germany is claimed)
  3. ↑ Quotation from a mother in the book, in: Heinrich Fink (Ed.): Stronger than fear. The six million who couldn't find a savior. Union, Berlin 1968, pp. 99-106. First as a report to the aid organization of the Evangelical Churches in Switzerland.
  4. ↑ Germaine de Rothschild
  5. ↑ For music lessons see this singing lesson with Germaine de Rothschild: USHMM
  6. ↑ Les enfants de la Guette CDJC 1999, p. 47. Translation from the French. Hanna buried the letters in the ground in France and took them out again after the liberation. The text is also spoken in the film "The Children of La Guette" by Andrea Morgenthaler . Ms. Klopstock also had her experiences recorded orally at the Shoa Foundation , USC
  7. ↑ According to Hannas, her brother Werner had to work in the mining industry in the Jawischowitz subcamp of Auschwitz and died there, ibid. P. 48. There, too, this letter, a translation from French, spoken in the film mentioned
  8. ↑ The publisher lists on its website those not in the nl. Output included documents from the attachment
personal data
SURNAME Luz, Elisabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elisabeth, aunt (pseudonym); Elizabeth, Aunt (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss welfare worker
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Hottingen (City of Zurich)
DATE OF DEATH April 5th 1971
Place of death Männedorf