Jewish Holocaust survivor's letter finds its destination in New York after 75 years

A letter from one of the darkest times in human history has finally reached home. New York Post. An emotional correspondence that took place more than 75 years ago (at the end of the Holocaust) between a survivor and a long-lost sister surfaced in the ruins of a New York flea market.

Now timed to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, the letter has been returned to a living descendant of the family thanks to "heirloom detective" and interior designer Chelsea Brown. Chelsea combs flea markets and works with genealogical records to reunite historical artifacts with their owners.

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The letter was sent from Berlin in 1945 to Ilse Lowenberg, who was born in 1908 and survived the horrors of the Holocaust in the 1940s, although she was forced to take a train to the Auschwitz/Birkenau concentration camp.

“It was too emotional for me,” Brown, 28, said. “Ilse still lives in the back of my mind.”

Ilse lost her entire family

In 1943, Ilse was able to jump out of a moving train car. train near Ruda, Poland, and ran away. She found herself returning to Berlin. There she continued to hide in order to avoid arrest. By 1944, she was again captured and tormented in several prisons in the German capital, and a year later she was released by Soviet troops.

Ilse lost her mother Hannchen, father Simon, sisters Margarethe and Lieselotte, and husband Gerhard Grün during the Holocaust.

Her sister Carla was the only member of the Ilse family to survive the war. Carla immigrated to the UK shortly before World War II and moved to the United States soon after.

In a heartbreaking letter, Ilse detailed the untold horrors the family endured.

“Thanks to the kindness of our liberators, I can give you a sign of life from myself after so many years,” she wrote. - Dad, mom, Greta, Lotchen and Herman: no one is already alive. My pain is unspeakably great. My wife, whom I married 3,5 years ago, was also taken away from me! … When there is a regular mail service, I will tell you everything in detail.”

Brown devotes much of his time to traveling through thrift stores and flea markets in the Big Apple. She returns the found things and antiques to their rightful owners - the descendants of the family.

Brown has investigated

Upon receiving the letter, Brown launched an investigation to pass on the historical document to one of Ilse's living relatives. Through her extensive research, Brown discovered that Carla and her husband Siegfried never had children. However, Siegfried's brother Ludwig did, and he had a granddaughter.

Jill Butler, Ludwig's granddaughter, was especially close to Ilse. Brown used the family history website MyHeritage.com to contact Butler and gave her a letter from her great aunt.

“The first reaction of almost every person is the question: “Is this a scam?” was quickly replaced by bewilderment,” Butler said of Brown’s efforts. “We all loved our great aunt Ilse and are incredibly happy to read her thoughts, written in her own handwriting after she emerged from the depths of European hell.”

As for Brown, she doesn't consider her "heirloom" hobby a real job.

"I'm not paid [for my work]," Chelsea said, adding that she finds a lot of genealogical antiques in thrift stores and flea markets. She has good connections with various flea market vendors because she buys items from them on a weekly basis.

"Ilse still lives in my memory"

“Deep down, my heart just sank because ever since I started this journey to recover the family heirloom, my goal has been to find documents about the Holocaust – to find as much as possible,” explained the “family heirloom detective.”

Through her project, Brown learned more about the family's tragic history. Grün was arrested and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1943, where he was shot dead. Earlier that year, the couple joined the underground resistance group Gemeinschaft für Frieden und Aufbau (Association for Peace and Development).

Lieselotte, Margaret and their mother were taken to Auschwitz in 1943, where they died. In the same year, their father was killed in the Theresienstadt camp.

After the Holocaust, Ilse married Ludwig Lowenberg and moved to Forest Hills in 1948, New York State.

Karla and Ilse lived to the end of their lives in New York, where the latter died in 2001. Ilse died on 11 September. Although she did not die on the World Trade Center site, her friends believe that the death was because Ilse could no longer see the tragedy in her life.

Brown began researching Ilse's life in September 2021 and it took her many weeks to find Jill. She explained that it was "a long process" and "it wasn't easy".

Once she found Jill using MyHeritage.com, Brown sent her a message via Facebook Messenger. They had a two hour telephone conversation. Jill was "overjoyed".

The two women still keep in touch, and when the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, Brown hopes to visit Jill for the first time.

“Ilse still lives in my memory every time I return because her story is incredibly wonderful,” Brown said. “She proves that we should be kind and do good in a world that is not very kind.”