Ellen's Journey

Scroll the right hand column to explore the map, geographical boundaries are taken from present day and may differ from historical records.

Ellen’s journey starts in Kӧnigsberg in East Prussia, then a part of Germany, where she was born on 17 January 1922.

She lived here with her mother, father, and two brothers
– Gert and Heinz.
This photograph is taken from the family’s flat in Königsberg. It shows people on Ellen’s street giving the straight arm Hitler salute as a Nazi parade passes by.

K0nigsberg

In 1938, Ellen went to Mannheim to learn how to sew. While here, she witnessed the anti-Jewish November Pogrom. Following that, Ellen sought refuge with her mother’s cousin, who was married to an American in Heidelberg where it was safer. Despite this, Ellen had to stay inside the flat for two or three weeks, because it wasn’t safe for Jewish people to go outside.

This is Ellen’s permit, which allowed her to come to England. It includes her date of birth, her parent’s details, and place of origin.

HEIDELBERG

After the November Pogrom, Ellen’s mother arranged for her to escape to England on the Kindertransport. Ellen travelled back to Königsberg where her father then accompanied her to Berlin. The whole family came to the train station in Königsberg to see her off.

Ellen arrived in London on the Kindertransport and initially spent a week in Islington Hospital. She then moved around repeatedly as she worked as domestic help for eight different families. This was a difficult time for Ellen, as she couldn’t speak English and missed her family terribly.

ENGLAND

This postal coupon made correspondence back to Kӧnigsberg possible.
This envelope is addressed to Ellen, who at the time was living in Nottinghamshire. The letter within it was written by Ellen's parents, Hans and Margarethe, who had been forced into a ghetto with Ellen's youngest brother, Heinz.

When the war broke out, Ellen was evacuated to Maidenhead, where she tried to find a job. Without a work permit, this proved difficult, but she was finally hired as a machinist. Eventually, Ellen married and moved to Nottingham where she settled. Later in life, she began speaking about her experience of persecution and being a refugee. She worked closely with the National Holocaust Centre and Museum to share her story.

Johann Stojka
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Daniel Bennahmias
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Eda De Buton
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Julie Weiss
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Julius Feldman
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Ellen Rawson
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Ghetto

In preparation for deportation to concentration camps, Jewish people were forced by Nazi authorities into enclosed districts. Isolated from the general population, the people in the ghettos suffered under miserable living conditions rife with starvation and diseases.

Eisernes Kreuz (Iron Cross)

The Iron Cross was a German military medal. It symbolises Germany’s fight for its national identity in confrontation with Napoleon. Irrespective of social rank, it honoured distinguished service for the good of the nation.

Kindertransport

On November 21, 1938, the British parliament decided to accept an unspecified number of children under Nazi persecution into Britain. It was up to various charitable organisations to guarantee their upkeep so that no costs would fall onto the state. Everything happened in great haste and rather improvised. Later on, the rescue effort for Jewish children became known as ‘Kindertransports’ after the German word for children, ‘kinder’.

November Pogrom

The November Pogrom – also known as Kristallnacht – marked the climax of organised, state-sanctioned terror against Jewish people in Germany before the Second World War. Jewish people were robbed, mistreated and murdered across Germany from 7 until 13 November 1938. Everybody could see this violence and destruction, as a good part of it happened in broad daylight.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Buchenwald Concentration Camp was established by the Nazis in 1937 and was one of the largest camps in Germany. Jews, Roma people, political prisoners, gay men Jehovah’s Witnesses and prisoners of war were imprisoned at Buchenwald, as well as ‘asocial’ prisoners who were incarcerated due to their inability to find work. Between 1937 and 1945 approximately 250,000 people were imprisoned at Buchenwald, over 56,000 of whom were killed. Many prisoners died due to illness, malnutrition, executions, medical experimentation, and the hardships of slave labour. In January 1945 approximately 10,000 prisoners – mostly Jewish – arrived at the camp after being forced to endure death marches. In early April, as US forces approached the camp, the Nazi paramilitary group SS began to force inmates on further marches out of Buchenwald. The US Army liberated 21,000 prisoners from Buchenwald on 11 April 1945.

Ravensbrück

Ravensbrück Concentration Camp was built in 1939 and was the largest women’s concentration camp. A small men’s camp was added in April 1941 and a youth camp, Uckermark, became part of Ravensbrück in June 1942. In total around 120,000 women and children and 20,000 men from over 30 different countries were imprisoned at Ravensbrück, including Jewish and Sinti and Roma people. Around 20,000 to 30,000 prisoners died in Ravensbrück, through starvation, from having been experimented on, from being worked to death, or selected for death for being considered too weak to work. A gas chamber was built in January 1945 and approximately 6,000 prisoners were gassed here. Shortly before the end of the war, the International, Danish and Swedish Red Cross evacuated around 7,500 prisoners to Sweden, Switzerland and France. Around 20,000 prisoners were taken on death marches. The Soviet Troops liberated the camp on 30 April 1945 and found around 2,000 prisoners who had been too sick to go on the death marches. 

Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration and Death Camp

Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most infamous of all Nazi camps and consisted of three main camps, known as Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II – Birkenau and Auschwitz III – Monowitz-Buna. There were also around 45 sub-camps around these sites. Over 1.1 million people were murdered at this site, and over 90% of them were Jewish.

Hartheim Castle Euthanasia Centre

In early 1940, Hartheim Castle in Austria was converted to be used as a killing centre for those with physical or mental disabilities (or those perceived to have these). From May 1940, people were killed using carbon dioxide in gas chambers. It is estimated that around 30,000 people were murdered in Hartheim Castle. 

Ongoing, state-organised persecution of Roma people

Historians estimate that between 200,000 and 500,000 Roma and Sinti (historically often labelled as ‘Gypsies’) people were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators in what is now called the Roma genocide. Many more were imprisoned, used for forced labour or subject to forced sterilisation and medical experimentation. Roma and Sinti men, women and children were already being targeted for persecution and imprisonment before the Second World War. As the Second World War began, the genocide of Roma and Sinti people intensified – including in occupied territories such as Austria. The persecution of Roma and Sinti and the Roma genocide took place alongside the Holocaust that saw the murder of six million Jews.

Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau Concentration Camp was established in March 1933, initially to house political opponents. Dachau was used as a model for all later concentration camps. In the 12 years of its existence, over 200,000 people from all over Europe were imprisoned in Dachau, including gay men, Sinti and Roma, ‘asocials’, criminals, Jews and, later, Soviet prisoners of war. Once the Second World War started, living conditions in Dachau drastically worsened. Approximately 41,500 people were murdered in Dachau; one third of these died in the final six months of the war.  Approximately 25,000 prisoners were sent on death marches as Allied troops approached. The camp was liberated by American troops in April 1945. 

Deportation

The Nazis planned the mass-deporation of European Jews to extermination camps in German-occupied Poland. The Jews were forced to gather at local sites, such as a synagogue or town square, and then crammed onto freight or passenger trains, with limited or no food or sanitary conditions. Journeys often lasted several days, and sometimes they took a few weeks. Many of those packed onto these trains died during the journey to the camps through starvation or overcrowding.