Ernestine Nelki née Russo 18.07.1867 – 09.02.1950

Ernestine was born in the Turkish Israelite community in Vienna on the 18th July 1867, daughter of Isaak and Mathilde (née Amar). The family were part of a Sephardic Jewish community and spoke Ladino, even though they lived in Vienna. Ernestine had 4 sisters and 7 brothers, and her father had a small business. In 1880, they moved to Leipzig when opportunities opened up in Germany for  Jews and in 1885 they moved to Berlin.

When Ernestine was 20, she met Hermann Nelki. They eventually married in 1895, after some opposition from her family as Hermann was from an Ashkenazi and not Sephardic background. As requested by Ernestine’s family, Hermann gave a dowry to the Russo family and they married in the orthodox synagogue in Schoenberger-Ufer 26, although they were not religious. They saw themselves as assimilated modern Jews and gave their 10 children German rather than Jewish names. They lived for many years in Augsburger Str 25 in Charlottenburg and had a good life here, with Ernestine as mother and housewife supporting her husband in his work. Apparently their living room was decorated with all kinds of weapons – pistols, foils, swords.

Her brothers Moritz and Benno moved to Wernigerode and established a successful Harz cheese dairy as well as building a beautiful Villa which still survives: https://www.villa-russo.com

On March 31st 1933, she left for Brussels with Hermann and Henry, the most vulnerable of her children. She was 66 and only spoke German. They lived in Brussels for a while and then moved to London, living with Otto in 52 Nightingale Lane, Clapham, S.W.12 and never living on their own again or even visiting Germany. Ernestine also lived with Wolf & Erna after Hermann died in 35 Bracken Avenue and died herself on February 9th 1950.

She is buried with Hermann in the Orthodox Jewish cemetery in Willesden, London.

(Moritz, Eduard ) Hermann Nelki 17.01.1863 – 12.01.1941

Hermann was the eighth child of Jakob Julius & Lina (née Heilbut), born in 1863. His was an Ashkenazi family, from Germany and Poland and not religious. He was 16 when his father left the family to live with a much younger woman and start a new family and the Nelki/y Family Circus: https://www.julianelki.com/archive-circus-nelkis.  He very much missed his father but determined to become a university educated dental surgeon unlike anyone else in his family. He worked as a dentist i(which did not require a university degree) in Potsdamer Strasse at the same time as studying in the university in Berlin although students weren’t really allowed to work. He completed the first part of the dental training in 1883 and continued working as a dentist to fund his studies to study further. In 1892, he enrolled in the philosophy dept in Halle (the medical department wouldn’t take dental students at that time) and became a qualified dental surgeon in 1894. He had reached a higher status than the Nelkis before him. No longer did it seem necessary to practice dentistry by roving from place to place or advertising.

When he married Ernestine in 1894, she moved into his home in Potsdamer Str 43 and they had their first five children there. By 1900, they needed a bigger place to live and moved to Schönwalder Str 111, Spandau with enough room for a growing family, a dental practice and a laboratory.

Hermann became interested in politics and an ‘elector’ for the national-liberal party. He and Ernestine got involved with the Society for the Protection of Children.

Their comfortable life and time in Spandau came to a sudden end when in 1910 a big sign was posted there (in 1910!) saying ‘do not go to Jewish dental surgeon Nelki’.

They moved to Wartburg Str in Schoneberg where Wolf, the youngest child was born.

Then in about 1914 they moved to Friedrichshagen as many of the family were in the army and working in Furstenwalde, which was closer to Friedrichshagen than where they lived before, although the journey turned out to take as long.

At the end of  WW1, they moved in 1917 to Augsburger Str 25 in Charlottenburg in Berlin – a flat with seven rooms and a front and back entrance. The best room with parquet flooring was chosen as the surgery. The so-called maid’s room was equipped as a dental laboratory. Gas pipes were laid to feed several Bunsen burners and the family helped equip the surgery. The whole family moved back to live together here at the end of WW1 and they bought another flat in that block to accommodate them all and their surgeries.

Hermann finally was able to complete his doctorate in 1921 in dentistry at the University of Königsberg, at the age of 59.

It was hard to get patients at that time and they bought and sold practices in different places although Augsburger Strasse was their main base and had the name plates of Fritz, Otto & Hermann on the door (even though Hermann practiced elsewhere).

Many parties were held at this house, especially at Christmas and on 23 January which was Alice’s birthday. They had a wide social life and many friends, both Jewish and not Jewish. Hermann’s 70th birthday was on Jan 17, 1933, and mentioned in the papers, saying what an excellent dental surgeon he was.

However, this was the last time they had security and comfort. The appointment of Hitler as chancellor in January 1933 changed everything and although they wanted to stay, on March 31st, the day before the boycott, he, Ernestine and Henry left Berlin to go to Brussels, ‘for two weeks’ said Hermann. They had never travelled outside Germany but never returned. With the help of a relative in Brussels they moved to a small furnished flat and were supported financially by Fritz who sent them money from London.

Eventually, they joined their sons in London and lived with Otto in Clapham. Hermann made sure the family gathered together at Christmas and birthdays and kept the family together and supporting each other until he died on 12 January 1941. He is buried with Ernestine in the Orthodox Jewish cemetery in Willesden, 17 Unity Cl, London NW10 2HR, London.

Friedrich Jaques Leopold  (Fritz) Nelki 6.12.1890 – 03.06.1953

Fritz was the eldest child, born in 1890. He was very affected by the deaths of his siblings – Grete of TB and then when he was 9, his brother Hans died aged 3 of diptheria in Spandau as well as Marie aged 4, Clara aged 1and Martha at 8 days. Although buried in the Jewish cemetery there, no record was kept of children’s burials until 1900.

Fritz went to Spandau grammar school and then studied dentistry at Rostock university, completing his dental studies on 8.8.1912 and 2 years later at Berlin university, his medical studies on 3rd August 1914. He and his brother Otto were very involved in the KC movement (known as the ‘Kartel convent of students’), a Jewish fencing organisation which they supported as students and also later. Both had duelling scars (known as ‘schmiss’) of which they were very proud.

Fritz volunteered on 8th August 1914 for the lancet regiment 3 in Fürstenwalde. After 4 months at the front, he quickly became Assistant Medical Director & was decorated with the Iron Cross for services at the Russian Front. He had introduced hygienic measures in a Russian village occupied by the Germans, which prevented a typhoid outbreak

After the war, he completed his doctorate on 30.12.1919 at the university of Greifswald.

He fled Berlin in 1934 after being called to the Gestapo, by saying he had to go home to get his passport but instead left on a train to Brussels, going via Prague and Vienna. Later he went to London. He had thought he would be safe in Germany as someone who got an honour for his work in WW1 but he was not. He was fortunate however to be able to work as a dental surgeon as soon as he arrived in England and was able to support the rest of the family. He lived  and practised in North London.  He had two children, Gordon and Joyce with Ruth Mannes who he met in London and they married on 31.07.1936.  The Mannes‘ family had also fled from Zwickau, Germany between 1933-35 and there are 5 Stolpersteine outside their family home in Zwickau:

https://www.kkg-zwickau.de/index.php/schule-im-dialog/sid-aktuell/406-neue-stolpersteine-in-zwickau-2022?i=img-0694

Fritz is buried along with Ruth in the liberal Jewish cemetery, adjacent to the orthodox one -  Off Pound Lane, Willesden, London NW10 2HG

(Wilhelm) Otto Nelki 26.06.1899 – 10.04.1972

Otto was born in Charlottenburg, Berlin and went to Furstenwalde grammar school. His

education was interrupted by the war but he took the equivalent  of British O’levels on 9.4.1918 and then volunteered for military service. After the war he had to prepare for matriculation and needed to work to earn money to study medicine. He first worked as a miner in the Rüdersdorfer Chalk Quarries and later in the Dresdner bank when during inflation they needed more people to count the money. He then studied medicine and was able to qualify in 1925 with a dissertation on rhinoplasty. He became an ear, nose and throat specialist and worked in the Charité hospital and opened his own clinic in Nauern in Berlin in 1928.

For a while after Hitler was made chancellor, Otto continued his normal work but on March 20th 1933, he, along with other Jewish doctors, was arrested. They were only released after signing something saying they had resigned.

 Otto was arrested on March 20 1933 together with his other Jewish colleagues in the Charité Hospital at the instigation of an SA man Dr. Salomon. Apparently this was a direct act of revenge. A year earlier posters had been put up all over the town saying ‘Heil Hitler’. The word ‘Heil’ can have two meanings in German, both ‘Hail’ and ‘Heal’ and underneath the poster that was put over Otto’s doctor nameplate, Otto had written ‘incurable’. 

He left Germany in 1934 and tried to work as a doctor in Britain but had to do a further 2 years to qualify there, doing a year in Dublin and a houseman year in London. He was then able to take over a GP practice in Nightingale Lane and Lavender Hill, South London and moved there. He had split up with his non-Jewish fiancée in Berlin and had only a short-lived marriage much later to a dancer Gaby Stieffel who had been in the Folie Bergere. He did not have any children but took over the care of Fritz’s children Gordon and Joyce after Fritz died quite young in 1953.

Heinrich Walter (Henry) 20.12.1901 – 27.11.1965

Henry was born very prematurely and always had difficulties with vision and learning and needed a lot of support. In 1917, he joined the cadet corps, together with his brother and was able to train and work as a dentist.

He was severely assaulted by stormtroopers in March 1933 and nearly died. This event led to the family deciding to leave Germany. Henry was extremely traumatised and became mentally ill in Brussels ( believing he and the family were being gassed!) and although at times he could do some work for the Red Cross, he was often very ill. He was interned together with his brothers on the Isle Of Man in 1939 but the family were very concerned about his vulnerability and managed to negotiate his early release.

Later he had to be sectioned to a mental hospital because he was so distressed by his delusions and hallucinations. There was no medication at that time that could help him and he stayed there his whole life. Wolf went to work as a dental surgeon there in order to see more of him. He died in Banstead Hospital of a heart attack at the age of 64

Alice Nelki 23.01.1892 – 05.03.1983

Initially she worked as a locum for dentists who were away in the army. Later she practised as a dentist in Augsburger Str until she got married in 1925. Her husband, Herr Ullendorf, died of pneumonia after only 4 months of marriage. There was no penicillin in those days. She was able to carry on working in Germany as her name was not immediately recognisable as Jewish until 1935 when her lodger reported her as a Jew. She then left in early 1936, managing (by an unusual opportunity) to take her dental equipment with her. Fritz supported her and bought her a house in 56 Pennine Drive where she lived and worked until she was 88. She married again in England, an English man, but the marriage did not last long, and she lived alone most of her life.

Siegfried Joachim Wolfgang Nelki (‘Wolf’) 11.06.1911 – 10.01.1992

Wolf, the youngest of the 10 children, was born on 11th June 1911. In 1917, after WW1, there was famine in Germany and Ilse, Wolf’s beloved older sister, died of food poisoning from rotten meat, aged 10.

He remembered very well the German revolution in 1918, when the kaiser abdicated and the social democrats formed the Weimar Republic, and the Spartacus movement challenged them – there were many fights and Wolf’s school was near the centre of demonstrations and violence. As children they would play out being Spartacists or for Scheidmann (the SDP president). The Spartacus uprising was finally quelled when Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebnecht were killed.

Wolf went to the Mommsen Gymnasium when he was 11 and soon became politically involved, refusing to follow the path his brothers had done. He described a vivid memory and formative experience in his development, of Walter Rathenau, the Jewish foreign minister being murdered in 1922 (because he was Jewish) and going on a demonstration with his sister Alice in protest. She told him Jews and workers must fight together. He joined the student movement – Sozialistische Schuler Bund (SSB) when he was 16 and the communist party when he was 17. He became editor of the student magazine – Der Schulkampf, supported students at industrial tribunals, was arrested for distributing leaflets and frequently challenged the antiquated school system. He matriculated when he was 17 and refused to join the KC or become a dentist. He wanted to study law & eventually was able to persuade his father to allow him to.

He loved his studies and had tutorials with Siegbert Springer who advised him a week after the day of the boycott on April 1 1933 to immediately leave Germany as he was at high risk as both a communist and a jew. He might otherwise not have left then as he was about to take his law finals and very much wanted to complete his studies. Springer later, on May 10, 1938, committed suicide when called to the Gestapo.

Wolf went to Paris and was able to continue his law studies at the Sorbonne, with help from many people and with a variety of menial jobs. He loved being in Paris, remained politically active (in the Berliner Opposition) and spoke French fluently. However, after a year, the French changed the law making it effectively not possible for refugees to work as lawyers. At the same time, the communist party (under Stalin) became more rigid and in 1935 Wolf and some of his friends were expelled from the communist party for not following the party line. This was a very hard and isolating time for Wolf, and he decided to go and live with his parents in Brussels. He worked there as a dental technician and made many friends, also keeping politically active. In 1937, he decided to study dentistry & didn’t follow his parents to London when they went to live with Otto and Fritz in 1937.

The father insisted on the family meeting up on birthdays and at Christmas so Wolf had to find ways to visit from Brussels and luckily was there in August 1939 when war broke out and he could not return. Although a blow because he couldn’t finish his dental studies, it probably saved his life.

He met up with Erna Liesegang in London who had been part of the same political movement in Berlin but early on in their relationship she was arrested (but never charged) and imprisoned in Holloway prison for 3 ½ months, 6 weeks in solitary confinement. He sought help from Fenner Brockway, MP, who ensured her release and they then got married on 2.3.1940 (with a curtain ring as their wedding ring!). Fenner and Wolf’s sister Alice were witnesses. The rest of the family disapproved.

Shortly afterwards, they – and Otto and Henry were interned on the Isle of Man. Wolf left after 6 months but Erna was only released after a year. They first lived in a large house in London lent to them while the family had evacuated to another part of England. Their son Michael was born on March 19, 1944. After the war, they lived in a flat in Blackheath where Erna started a nursery and Wolf worked as a dental technician. Eventually and with Otto’s help they bought their own small house in Clapham and had another child, Julia in 1953.

After getting some compensation from the German government, Wolf was able to study again and finally completed his dental studies in 1961. He worked as a dental surgeon from home until in his seventies. He became passionately interested in the family and traced the family back several generations. Part of his research has now been turned into a book by his daughter called Villa Russo: A German Story pub: Offizin.2019 in German and in 2022 in English: https://www.julianelki.com/bookshop