The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Portrait of Selma Gerson wearing a white beaded necklace. Selma Gerson was employed by the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (the Reich Association of Jews in Germany), an organisation established to support Jewish schools, hospitals and welfare within Germany, which promoted the emigration of Jews from Germany. On 20 June 1942, Selma arrived a few minutes late for work; the Gestapo were waiting. Selma’s brother-in-law, Theodor Kabaker, recounted that those who were late “had to go to the courtyard and were then immediately written up for transport”. The Gerson family gathered together and brought Selma “a thermos, enamel plate, and enamel cup and some foodstuffs”. At this last meeting, Theodor described Selma as, “quite composed.” Selma was sent to a collection camp in central Berlin and then transported across Eastern Europe to Belarus. She arrived at Maly Trostenets extermination camp near Minsk on 24 June 1942. Selma’s fate is not known, however she was probably executed shortly afterwards. In 1946, Theodor wrote, “No news of Selma ever reached us.” Selma's sisters, Berta and Herta also died in the Holocaust. Another sister, Adele, escaped Germany for employment at the Royal Cancer Hospital in London in 1939 before emigrating to Melbourne, Australia in March 1947. There, she was reunited with her brother Siegfried and his family, who had emigrated to Australia in 1939.
Portrait of Selma Gerson. Selma Gerson was employed by the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (the Reich Association of Jews in Germany), an organisation established to support Jewish schools
Portrait of Herta Lewinsky (née Gerson). During the Second World War, Herta Lewinsky (along with her sister Selma Gerson) was employed in Berlin by the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (the
Studio portrait of Berta Gerson. A resident of Berlin at the outbreak of the Second World War, Berta phoned her brother-in-law Theodor Kabaker on 3 December 1942 to inform him of her impending deporta
Studio portrait of Berta Gerson. A resident of Berlin at the outbreak of the Second World War, Berta phoned her brother-in-law Theodor Kabaker on 3 December 1942 to inform him of her impending deporta
Siegfried Gerson and Selma Gerson having tea. The tea set pictured was brought to Australia by the Gerson's, a German Jewish family, who fled Nazi Germany in 1938.
'31 Dez. 1938. Ein letztes Haendedrnek, ehe de Zug with in Bewegnnin setzt, Alles Gnte Winsiht D:; Dein - Soh Wages Theodor und Else.' The Gerson sisters, Selma Gerson, Adele Gerson, Berta Gerson and
