Sara Davidmann

Dorothea Mianowski (née Altmann)

Gestapo Berlin Transport List of Jews deported on Transport 1/27 from Berlin to Theresienstadt, 21st July 1942. 

Dorothea was the artist’s great grandmother. She is listed as number 62 on the Transport List. Records show that Dorothea died in Theresienstadt on 15 September 1942, less than 2 months after her arrival. 

Marta Zernik (née Mianowski) 

Gestapo Berlin Transport List of Jews deported on Transport 26 from Berlin to Auschwitz, 12th January 1943. 

Marta was the artist’s great aunt. She is listed as number 318 on the Transport List. There is no trace of Marta in the Auschwitz files, which suggests she was not processed properly into the camp. Taking this into account, together with her age, fifty-four at the time of deportation, it is most likely she was not selected for labour and was murdered shortly after her arrival.

Letter found in the Berlin Finance Department with Transport List 26

A letter accompanies each set of transportation papers. According to these letters, the Berlin Finance Department had previously requested records of Berlin Jews who had been deported to concentration camps as they were looking for assets that had not previously been seized from Jews murdered in the camps. 

Elfried Nathan (née Mianowski)

Letter from the Far Eastern Jewish Central Information Bureau for Emigrants, Sufferers of War and other Calamities, Shanghai to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, New York (HIAS). 

Elfried was the artist’s great aunt. On 21st May 1939 Elfried and her husband Fritz left Berlin, travelled across Germany and into Italy. There they boarded an Italian ship, the SS Victoria, and sailed to Shanghai. When almost all other countries closed their doors to Jewish refugees, Shanghai did not require a visa and remained open to refugees. The HIAS papers record that 14,300 Jewish refugees were registered in Shanghai at the time.

Paulina Schneeweiss Davidmann (née Mianowski)

International Tracing Service (TD) records for Paulina. 

Paulina was the artist’s grandmother. These records show that Paulina survived the Holocaust in hiding in Berlin (‘versteckt gel. in Berlin’). The cards give the various names by which Paulina was known during and after WWII. Mianowski was Paulina’s maiden name and Schneeweiss was part of her married surname. The surnames Giese and Hennig and the first name Maria were most likely invented to use on false identification papers. Paulina could not have survived in hiding without help. At least one person, and probably several people, risked their own lives to save Paulina’s life.

Rosa Knüppel (née Mianowski)

International Tracing Service folder 

The folder contains lists of displaced persons registered in Schleswig-Holstein at the end of World War II and requests from international organisations trying to locate missing family members. The folder includes records relating to Paulina being found in the Displaced Persons Camp in Eutin, Schleswig-Holstein. In 1947 Paulina was liberated from the camp and moved to England. At the end of WWII over 2,500 Jewish survivors were living in these camps. 

Rosa was the artist’s great aunt. When the war ended, Rosa tried to find out what had happened to her family. She did not know who had survived, where they were, or what had become of them. She submitted numerous requests for information to organisations that were helping to trace missing people. It is because of Rosa’s efforts at that time that many of the records about the family exist today.