Ilse Schoenholz biographical sketch

Ilse Schoenholz (1924-1994) was born in Bochum to store owners Ferdinand (1885-1944) and Ella (nee Kaufmann, 1884-1943) Sternberg. Her parents' store was boycotted when the Nazis came to power, and she was sent to England on a Kindertransport in August 1939. Her parents were deported to the Riga ghetto in early 1942. Her father was tranferred to the Kaiserwald concentration camp in June 1943 and executed in August 1944. Her mother was transferred to Auschwitz in November 1943 and murdered. Ilse lived with various families and in refugee homes in London, Llanelly (Wales), and Manchester, studied French at Exeter, and became a naturalized English citizen in 1948. She was engaged to Holocaust survivor Walter Schoenholz, from Recklinghausen, in 1951. The couple immigrated to the United States in October 1952 and were married in December.