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Elisabeth Marcuse (Köln, 1894) married Ernst Eylenburg (Trautenau, 1885) in 1919 in Berlin, where they had met at the University, studying medicine.

In March 1939 their two children, Erna (1923) and Walter (1929) went to the Netherlands with a Kindertransport.

In September 1939 Walter was placed with the Wijsenbeek family in The Hague. Elisabeth Eylenburg wrote to her son and to his foster mother, who kept all the letters. In the letters to Walter she tells him to be a good boy and how much she misses him. To his foster mother she describes her life in Berlin, her worries and fears about her son’s behavior and their attempts to arrange the emigration of the whole family to the US. She also writes about her doubts whether she has done the right thing in sending her children abroad.

On August 5th, 1943, Walter was taken by the SA (Sturm Abteilung) from the home of the Wijsenbeek family on the request of his parents and put on a train to Berlin. There he joined his parents who were about to be deported to Theresienstadt. None of them survived.

Here you will find all the letters and translations to English.
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