Similar to the Quakers and the Smallbones-Scheme the British sisters Ida and Louise Cook helped many people to escape to England. In Professor Ferdinand Blum’s house in Arndtstrasse 51, Blum’s daughters Pauline Jack and Gertrud Roesler-Ehrhardt organized meetings between those seeking help and the Cook sisters. These meetings in Blum’s private house remained unknown even though there were many hints, which indicated to Gertrud Roesler-Ehrhardt’s commitment and opposition to the Nazi laws. Even after Ferdinand Blum’s emigration in 1939 she was able to hold on to the family property in Arndtstrasse 51. Roesler-Ehrhardt reported in detail about the “Blum Communal Life” in the documentary film “Unter Denkmalschutz”. The cooperation with the Cook sisters was not mentioned.

Her sister Pauline Jack was a music teacher. Her circle of contacts encompassed the world of opera and classical music and reached far beyond Frankfurt. The two English music enthusiasts Ida and Louise Cook, who scraped together every penny they could in order to follow their opera stars and the newest productions across the continent, were welcomed weekend guests in Arndtstrasse. The Blum daughters, together with the Cook sisters, were able to realize the very last possibilities for relatives and friends to get out of Nazi Germany. Pauline Jack compiled a list of people who had to desperately emigrate. Ida and Louise made their home available for “the interviews” with those people seeking help. Louise learned German in order to better understand these people. Ida Cook’s apartment in Dolphin Square in London became the first place of refuge for the refugees.

In 1935 Ida and Louise found out for the first time what it meant to be a German Jew in Frankfurt from their friend Mitia. In 1937 they helped the first of their friends to emigrate, amongst whom was Mitias’s daughter Elsa Mayer-Lismann. On 10 November 1938 Ida Cook witnessed the pogrom in Frankfurt. Her report about how the British consulate general opened his doors to the persecuted and the vice-consul general Arthur Dowden drove through the streets in order to distribute food, were quoted in the speech honoring the British diplomats in London in 2008.

In 1939 Ida and Louise Cook proceeded systematically. They flew in from Croydon airport in London to Frankfurt on Friday evening in order to return on Sunday evening via ship, fully loaded down with furs and fancy clothes, jewel-studded broaches and money. The “presents” were intended to ensure the refugees’ subsequent survival in England. Ida and Louise held preparatory conversations with all those seeking help. They did not want to reject anyone. A seemingly complicated case very often proved solvable or a simple case turned out be insurmountable. The close contact to the British consulate made it easier for the English women to handle with individual cases. They reviewed documents in advance and established a convincing story in order to convince the consulate general to issue a visa. After they were successful in getting Elsa Mayer-Lismann out of the country, they helped her friend Friedl Bamberger and subsequently her parents, the teacher Lulu Cossmann, Lisa Basch from Offenbach, Irma Bauer from Vienna and many others.

Ida and Louise Cook were honored in Yad Vashem in 1964 as “Righteous Amongst the Nations” for 29 confirmed rescue cases. They received the “Heroes of the Holocaust Award” in London. Gertrud Roesler-Ehrhardt was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1983 and the Johanna Kirchner Medal from the town of Frankfurt am Main in 1991. She died at age 96 in Frankfurt am Main.

See: Louise Carpenter: Ida & Louise – 
wie zwei Schwestern die Gestapo überlisteten, 
Zürich 2010; Ida Cook: “Safe Passage” – 
The Remarkable True Story of Two Sisters who rescued 
Jews from the Nazis”, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada 2008


About Gertrud Roesler-Ehrhardt and Arndtstrasse 51
The HR documentary film “Unter Denkmalschutz”, 
Eberhard Fechner, 1975, and Petra Bonavita: 
Nie aufgeflogen, Berlin 2013, 
Page 29 about the failed rescue of Karl Herxheimer.

Internet:  Links to Ida Cook, Dolphin Square in London, 
Elsa Mayer-Lismann and Friedl Bamberger.

[german version]

The Quakers, who helped many of the persecuted, had to accept that they were unable to prevent some of their own members from being deported. If a visa application was not filed in time or lacked a sufficient affidavit, the political blockade regarding the visa limitations was unavoidable. There were too many difficulties during the preparation to escape to a safe foreign country.

The Wiesbaden couple Dr. Erich and Elli Frankl got to know the Frankfurt Quakers during the 1930’s. They visited the latter’s Sunday prayer sessions and found “true” friends at a time when many old acquaintances distanced themselves. As they had not filed their visa application early enough, the involvement of the Quaker friends to escape Nazi Germany was hopeless. However, their two children Hai (actual name: Heinrich) and Hermine were able to get out in time. The 17-year-old Hermine reached England on 7 August 1939 via a children transport. The correspondence with her parents was difficult, because once the war broke out all letters had to be sent via relatives and the Quakers, which could take months. That is why Hermine confided her homesickness and longing to see her parents to her diary.

Hai Frankl was 19 years old. He had been forced to quit school in Wiesbaden and was only able to complete a gardener training position in a Jewish firm. On 26 August 1939 he entered Sweden with a transit via, which had been arranged for him with the help of Emilia Fogelklou, a Swedish author and Quaker, and friends from the Wiesbaden-Nerother Wandervogel Movement. He was placed in an agricultural company near Stockholm. The Quakers also tried to rescue the Frankl parents from Wiesbaden. Emilia Fogelklou and the Frankfurt Quaker Dr. Rudolf Schlosser made every effort to arrange a departure until the end of 1942. Letters went back and forth between Stockholm and Wiesbaden almost on a daily basis. The Quakers’ emotional assistance was a pillar of support in the months prior to deportation. Erich and Elli Frankl were deported to a camp on 10 June 1942 and subsequently killed.

The daughter Hermine Frankl emigrated to the USA in 1945, married and had two sons with husband Gus. She died in Miami, Florida in 1987. Hai Frankl took his enthusiasm for music, which he had acquired in his parents’ house, with him to Sweden. He met his wife Topsy while studying decorative painting, which was financed by the Quakers. The couple traveled through German speaking Europe and performed folk music. Hai Frankl lived in Stockholm where he died on 13 January 2016.

See: Michaela Bolland: Wir sind noch! – 
Documentation Dr. Erich und Elli Frankl 1880-1942, 
in the municipal archives Wiesbaden; 
the posthumous correspondence is located in the 
Aktives Museum Spiegelgasse, Wiesbaden.

 

 

Sophie Mayer was a “valued member” of the Frankfurt Quakers. She lost her job as a secretary when her Jewish employer emigrated. After that she was active in the field of Jewish Welfare Care. She had taken care of filing her visa application and affidavit for the USA in time. However, when the American consulate in Stuttgart started to process her visa, the affidavit, which had been provided by her cousin in New York was no longer valid. The Frankfurt Quaker Dr. Rudolf Schlosser asked the American Quakers for help. The new affidavit arrived too late. When Sophie Mayer was forced to wear the yellow star she was no longer allowed to attend the prayer sessions and meetings. The Quaker Eva Hermann came to her apartment when it was dark. Sophie Mayer was deported on 1 March 1943 and murdered.

It was a stroke of luck that 17-year-old Fritz Höniger was on a farm training program in southern England while waiting to study in Birmingham. He had attended the international Quaker school “Eerde” in Ommen for two years and the Quakers wanted to support his further training with a scholarship. All these plans were destroyed after 9 November 1938, but his stay in southern England made it easier to arrange his family’s escape from Frankfurt. With the help of British Quakers he received a guarantee for his father, which confirmed the latter’s temporary stay for one year until Dr. Georg Höniger was able to emigrate to the USA in August 1940 with a visa which he had previously applied for. The family found a clergyman who was prepared to accept his 14-year-old sister Ruth. She left with one of the children transports. Only his stepmother, who was separated from his father for some time, did not file an application for a visa and had to stay in Nazi Germany. Elisabeth Höniger was deported in 1943 and murdered.

The Hönigers survived in three countries: The father Georg in the USA, Fritz as an “enemy alien” in a camp in Canada and Ruth in England. They were only able to reunite at the end of the war. The British Quaker Bertha Bracey got Fritz released (later: F. David Hoeniger) from the camp in Canada..

Siehe: Petra Bonavita: Quäker als Retter ... im Frankfurt am Main der NS-Zeit, Stuttgart 2014, S.210, S. 259-267

 

 

[german version]

The Quakers supported British Consul General Smallbones’ demand for a quick departure from Nazi Germany for a long time. During discussions with them he found out that they wanted “to bring about an emigration process which stretched over several years”.
The core belief according to the “Religious Society of Friends,” or Quakers, is an individual believer’s direct relation with God. They reject all forms of nationalism. Their “active” help, their international bonds and their readiness to help all those being persecuted, established them as the first helpers after 1933. They belonged to the first non-Jews who recognized the dangers for the persecuted people and responded with offers to help those fleeing. The American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia (a Quaker help organization) for example brokered the first unaccompanied children to the USA in 1934.

See Internet-Website: www.onethousendchildren.org

In autumn 1933 the British and German Quakers in Falkenstein in Taunus (near Frankfurt), together with the hotel owner of the “Frankfurter Hof”, made a available location where the people who were released from prisons and camps could recover from their experiences. In spring 1934 they established a boarding school in The Netherlands (“Eerde” in the town of Ommen) for children who were harassed, excluded and forced to quit German schools. They helped everyone: Jews and Catholics, Social Democrats and Communists. The Quaker offices soon changed from advising to offering concrete help with regard to emigration. Similar to the Jewish help organizations they looked for loopholes in the British immigration laws: nine agricultural schools accepted male teenagers; they placed young women with a Domestic Permit in English households; the Quakers looked for families who were prepared to offer a guarantee for a transit visa to England; they collected money at their Quaker meetings for such guarantees. Above all, they offered help to those people who were not assisted by any other help organization. Their good connections to the various Jewish welfare organizations in Frankfurt and the very close cooperation between the two, was a blessing for many people: “Many Frankfurt Jews owed their rescue to them” wrote the Frankfurt Rabbi, Georg Salzberger.

“Just get out, just get out” was the British Quaker Elisabeth F. Howard’s demand in 1938. The Quaker office, which opened in Liebigstrasse 16 in 1933 was unable to handle the demand of those seeking help in 1938. An ad-hoc international Quaker center was opened in Hochstrasse 8, in the middle of the city, where the Quaker Else Wüst lived. The German Quakers were assisted by friends from the USA and Great Britain: Florence Cook and Robert Balderston from the USA as well as the British Quakers Elisabeth F. Howard and Dorothy Henkel. The Frankfurt Quaker group consisted of the reliable Dr. Rudolf Schlosser, Else Wüst, Elisabeth Mann, Ilse and Hans Petersen and Leonore Burnitz, to name just a few. Horst Nendel, a Quaker from Chemnitz, helped temporarily and the 17-year-old Bergit Braach helped out as secretary. The close cooperation with the British consul general in Frankfurt, the British Quakers and the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia paid off. The international Quaker center in Frankfurt became the point of contact for the entire German southwest. Their support spread like wild fire amongst the Quakers’ friends.

 

 

See: Petra Bonavita: Quäker als Retter ... im Frankfurt am Main der NS-Zeit, Stuttgart 2014

 

[german version]

One of the few foreign diplomats, who concerned himself with the situation of those already being persecuted in November 1938, was the British consul general Robert T. Smallbones, who had been in his position in Frankfurt since 1932.

During a short visit in London in November 1938 he received shocking news about the destruction of Jewish businesses, the arrest of Jewish men and their helpless families as well as their frightened wives and children. He held meetings with the London Home Office’s civil servants, but none of them was prepared to accept the true meaning of the dangerous situation. Consul General Smallbones realized that it was necessary to first get the men released from the camps, into which they had been confined after 9 November, because without their breadwinners the women and children would not emigrate from Nazi Germany.

After the first unsuccessful exploratory talks in London, Consul General Smallbones contacted Sir Samuel Hoare, the Interior Minister, to whom he presented his plan. With a limited two year transit visa the threatened people would be brought to Great Britain where they would be on safe territory, while waiting for the country, which had issued them an entry visa for a future date. The Interior Minister accepted the proposal without calling for any parliamentary debate.

As soon as he returned to Frankfurt, Consul General Smallbones sought a meeting with the Nazi authorities. He reached an agreement with Frankfurt Gestapo, which led to the following arrangement: The family members would present to the British Consulate the documents relating to their already initiated emigration. Thereupon, they would receive a permit from the consulate, which would lead to the release of the interned Jewish men. The men would return to Frankfurt for a limited period of time, during which they had to report to the local police station on a weekly basis. Once they had sold their possessions and paid all the taxes and fees, which the Nazis required, they would be allowed to leave. The British Consulate verified if the already initiated emigration to the desired country was possible within two years. The consulate then issued a transit visa for Great Britain. Relatives or relief organizations had to provide a guarantee, which would serve as a financial security during the limited stay in Great Britain. All of the British consulates in Europe were soon working in line with the “Smallbones Scheme” and thanks to this scheme approximately 48.000 Jewish refugees were able to travel to Great Britain.

The massive efforts of Consul General Smallbones as well as the Quakers and the Cook sisters show that many people and their families would have been deported after 1941, had they not received help to emigrate in 1939.

 

 

 

 

See: www.sarachi.org/commemorating-diplomats.pdf
See: Ambassador Henderson’s report about Hitler, Goering, Ribbentrop, London 1940, p. 28

See: Exibition Gegen den Strom: 
Editor: Fritz Backhaus/Monica Kingreen 
(Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main).
Catalogue, which accompanied the exhibition 
with the same name, Frankfurt am Main 2012

[german version]

The invasion of Austria by the German Wehrmacht in March 1938 and the pogroms on 9 November 1938 convinced many Jews to emigrate. Until then they had hesitated to flee from the areas, which had come under the Nazi influence. Thereafter, only a few managed to escape. The number of inquiries submitted to the countries, which would accept these people and the hope for an easing of the related visa requirements increased as of the start of 1938. However, the international conference, which took place in the French city of Évians-les-Bains in the summer of 1938 did not provide any answers to this emergency situation. Representatives of 32 countries discussed at this conference how to handle the flood of Jewish refugees. No final decision was reached regarding an easing of the immigration regulations and an increase of the quota limits. Several countries expressed their willingness to accept unaccompanied children. Switzerland and Sweden were prepared to accept several hundred small children and teenagers, while Belgium, Holland and France were prepared to accept several thousand. The decision of the Swiss government in August 1938, in cooperation with the Nazi government in Berlin, to introduce a large, visible “J” in the passport and identity cards, enabled the Swiss civil servants to identify the Jewish refugees at the border and send them back. Even the reports of the pogroms in November 1938, which were reported in the worldwide press, did nothing to change the attitude of the foreign governments. The life-threatening situation of all Jews within the Nazi influenced areas and the deportation of Jewish men to concentration camps resulted in a wave of their relatives rushing to the foreign consulates. Those who did not apply for a visa to the USA during the summer of 1938 had to endure many years of waiting. A hectic search for distant relatives in foreign countries began. Shanghai was one of the destinations, which accepted people without a visa and without a long wait, but without sufficient financial means it was difficult to reach.

 

[german version]