Ellen Nebel collection

Ellen Weinberg (later Nebel) was born on March 6, 1925 in Hannover, Germany. Her father, Emmanuel Weinberg, was the owner of J.P. Neumark, a piece goods store in Hannover. Her mother Else was a pianist. The Weinberg family was not observant, but still maintained a strong Jewish identity. In the prewar period, the anti-Semitism of the German government restricted Ellen’s life, but she still managed to be friends with a member of the Bund Deutscher Mädchen (a division of the Hitler youth). She and her two siblings, Marga (b. 1922) and Peter (b. 1928), attended Jewish schools once they were forced to leave the public school system.

In 1939, Ellen and her brother were taken on a Kindertransport to the Netherlands where they stayed at an orphanage. When Germany invaded the Netherlands, the children were sent on a ship to England. The SS Bodegraven began a six-day voyage with Jewish refugee children. Ellen arrived in Liverpool, England after the ship’s earlier attempt to land in Ireland failed. During the war, she and her brother volunteered for war work. They also joined the Youth Aliyah movement. In 1948, she met and married Kurt Nebel in London. They eventually immigrated to the United States with their two children in August 1954. Ellen’s parents, older sister, and grandmother obtained an exit visa and left for Turkey in May 1940 aboard the Orient Express. The Weinbergs managed to send a postcard to Ellen and Peter while they were stopped in Romania. They immigrated to the United States in 1953 after returning to Germany.