Prescription and instructions for Setty Sondheimer signed by Dr. Elkhanan Elkes.
Overview
- Caption
- Prescription and instructions for Setty Sondheimer signed by Dr. Elkhanan Elkes.
- Date
-
1941 February 19
- Locale
- Kaunas, Lithuania
- Variant Locale
- Kauen
Kovno
Kowno - Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Hanni Sondheimer Vogelweid
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Hanni Sondheimer Vogelweid
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Artifact Photographer
- Max Reid
- Biography
- Hanni Lori Sondheimer is the daughter of Moritz and Setty Sondheimer. She was born on October 5, 1923 in Berlin, Germany and has a younger brother, Karl. In 1934, the family fled Nazi Germany and moved to Kaunas, Lithuania. Moritz had owned a leather goods store in Berlin, and in Kaunas he opened a small plastics factory which manufactured combs and buttons. He helped many Polish refugees by employing them in his factory. Hanni first attended a German school in Kaunas but after it became increasingly antisemitic, she transferred to an ORT school to learn millinery skills. After the Soviet take-over of Lithuanian in the summer 1940, the government appropriated Moritz's business, the family's apartment and bank accounts. They decided to emigrate and applied for German passports. Setty had received hers in 1938, and Moritz and Hanni received theirs in July 1940. Karl, Hanni's brother, was listed on his father's passport. After receiving the passports, Hanni was sent first to the Dutch Consul, Zwartendijk to get a final visa to Curacao and then to the Japanese consulate to apply for Japanese transit visas for the family. The Sondheimers were among the few recipients of Sugihara visas who were not Polish citizens. The family next had an interview with the NKVD in order to obtain exit visas and sold their household possessions for ready cash. Just as the family was about to leave in February 1941, Setty became sick, and the family considered delaying trip. Setty went to see Dr. Elkes, a famous physician who later became head of the Kovno ghetto. He gave her a prescription for the journey and advised her to leave while she could. The family went to Moscow and traveled on the Trans-Siberian railroad in relative luxury. However, all their possessions were confiscated in Vladivostok. After their arrival in Japan and they went to Yokohama after being told that Kobe was for Polish Jews. While in Yokohama, Hanni studied stenography and English, and her mother corresponded with her sister in California to try to get American visas. Though the family's American relatives agreed to provide affidavits and landing money, the American consulate refused to grant them visas since they still had relatives in Europe. The family eventually got Ecuadorian visas, but by then the US had entered the war, and they no longer could travel across the Pacific. The Sondheimers were deported to Shanghai in late summer. There, Moritz worked for a White Russian Jewish wool importer as an escort for Chinese coolies, taking goods from the dock and Hanni and Karl worked in a textile factory. After the war, Hanni worked for the U.S. occupation force where she met and married Army Lieutenant Al Gade. She immigrated to Iowa as a war bride in 1946, and her family immigrated to Los Angeles the following year.
Dr. Elkhanan Elkes (1879-1944) was a Jewish physician who, during the German occupation of Lithuania, assumed the leadership of the Jewish community in the Kovno ghetto. Born in Kalvarija, Lithuania, Elkes received his medical degree in 1903 in neurology and internal medicine. In 1912 he married Miriam Malbin. They had two children: Joel and Sarah. After serving as a physician in the Russian army, he opened a private practice and eventually became one of Kovno's leading physicians. In 1923 he was apppointed head of the department of internal medicine at the Bikur Holim hospital in Kovno. His numerous private patients included the Lithuanian prime minister, the German ambassador, and other members of the diplomatic community. In August 1941 the SS ordered Kovno's leading Jewish citizens to select a leader to head the new Jewish Council. No one wanted to assume this role. Finally the community prevailed upon Elkes, citing his connections and moral integrity. He remained in this position for all three years of the ghetto's existence. Despite his own failing health, he provided moral leadership, helped the ghetto's medical community, and provided tacit support to the underground. Much of the day to day running of the ghetto was entrusted to his deputy, Leib Garfunkel, an attorney and former Jewish delegate to the Lithuanian parliament. Elkes acted principally as an intercessor with the German authorities to ameliorate the severity of their orders. In one famous anecdote, shortly before the ghetto's liquidation, Elkes made a personal appeal to SS Captain Wilhelm Goecke. Elkes promised to write Goecke a personal testimonial if he spared the ghetto; Goecke refused. Elkes was deported to Dachau in July 1944. There, he continued to offer medical care to fellow Jews until he succumbed to starvation brought on by a hunger strike. He died on October 17, 1944 at the age of 65. Due to his stature, he was allowed a public burial in a marked grave. Elkes was survived by his wife Miriam, who had been deported to Stutthof, and his two children Sarah and Joel, who were studying in England during the war.
- Record last modified:
- 2001-01-31 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1112953
