Note: This Blog post briefly summarizes a 34-page personal account written in German by Susanne Vogel née Neisser, the daughter of Dr. Ernst Neisser and Margarethe Neisser née Pauly, describing the last months of her father’s life during WWII.
Related Posts:
Post 45: Holocaust Remembrance: Recalling My Pauly Ancestors
Post 46: Wartime Memories of My Half-Jewish Cousin, Agnes Stieda née Vogel
To remind readers, Margarethe Neisser née Pauly (1876-1941) was one of my great-great-aunt Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer’s (1844-1927) (Figure 1) nine children with Josef Pauly (1843-1916) (Figure 2); Margarethe Pauly and Dr. Ernst Neisser (1863-1942) (Figure 3) married on September 5, 1898 in Stettin, Germany [today: Szcezcin, Poland], and together they had two children, Susanne Vogel née Neisser (1899-1984) (Figure 4) and Peter Neisser (1906-1929). Susanne Vogel authored the moving account of her father’s last months in a 34-page letter she wrote to her first cousin, Liselotte Dieckmann née Neisser (1902-1994) (Figure 5), on March 28, 1947; to further orient the reader, Susanne Vogel was the mother of Agnes Stieda née Vogel (1927-still living) (Figure 6), whose wartime memories were the subject of Post 46.
Susanne Vogel’s account of her father’s last months is on file at the Leo Baeck Institute NewYork/Berlin, but I discovered it while researching Dr. Ernst Neisser on the Internet. Agnes would later tell me about it and suggest it needed eventually to be translated from German. Consequently, Agnes and I have agreed to collaborate on this, so in coming months Agnes will translate her mother’s letter into English, I will edit it, and we’ll make it available to readers through my Blog. In the interim, I asked one of my cousins to summarize the contents. What follows are some highlights of Susanne Vogel’s account, which fill in a few gaps in the timing of the unfortunate events in Ernst and Margarethe Neisser’s lives.
Dr. Ernst Neisser, nicknamed “Bärchen,” was the Director of the municipal hospital in Stettin, Germany from 1895 until his retirement in 1931. Prior to 1909 he published multiple papers on tuberculosis. Beginning in 1902, Dr. Neisser began calling for the establishment of “tuberkulose krankenhäuser,” tuberculosis hospitals, rather than isolation houses for people with heavy consumption, “Schwere Schwindsucht.” For many years, his proposal was ignored, as most physicians wanted to retain the character of what were called “Heilstätten,” sanatoriums, which would be lost if people seriously sick and dying of tuberculosis were admitted. Nonetheless, Dr. Neisser finally prevailed, receiving financial support from the city of Stettin to build the Tuberkulosekrankenhaus in Hohenkrug [a part of Szczecin, Poland] which opened in 1915. This turned out to be such an excellent model that eventually many of the best Heilstätten became tuberculosis hospitals.
Another of Dr. Neisser’s signature accomplishments was the consolidation of all institutions involved in the treatment of tuberculosis (e.g., tuberkulose krankenhäuser, tuberkulose Fürsorgestelle (welfare center), etc.) under one umbrella, resulting in better supervision, improved organization, and enhanced care. Dr. Neisser left the field once he had achieved this goal. Whether by accident or design, his accomplishments in the treatment of tuberculosis do not appear to be acknowledged in sources generally available on-line.
Dr. Neisser was co-inventor with a man named Pollack in 1904 of what is called a “hirnpunktion,” a brain puncture. What I have concluded this involves is a procedure to relieve pressure in the brain caused by an edema (i.e., a condition characterized by an excess of watery fluid collecting in the cavities or tissues of the body, including the brain), or a hematoma (i.e., a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues, including the brain). The procedure entails placing a patient on their side with their head bent forward, making a cut along the median line of the head, then pushing through the membrane with a probe to draw out the excess fluid to relieve pressure on the brain.
As researcher and hospital director, Dr. Neisser was interested in lead and arsenic poisoning; pernicious anemia; iodine treatment for these ailments; tick therapy; psittacosis (i.e., “parrot fever”, a zoonotic infectious disease in humans contracted from infected parrots, macaws, cockatiels, etc.); and more. He advocated for a “Krankheitserscheinungen Fortlaufende Beobachtung,” an institute for the continuous observation of illnesses from their onset to their fully-fledged maturation and organized such a department in 1918 at the municipal hospital where he was director. Following his forced retirement in 1931 because of age, 68 at the time, Dr. Neisser became chief of a sanatorium in Altheide [today: Polanica-Zdrój, Poland]. After he was likely forced out of this position because of Nazi ascendancy, he and Margarethe moved to Berlin.
Dr. Neisser loved music and the arts, and to this day some of his descendants are professionally involved in these endeavors.
From Post 45, regular subscribers may recall my discussion about the timing of Margarethe Neisser’s death. From one family tree to which I’ve referred multiple times, “Schlesische Jüdische Familien,” Silesian Jewish Families, I discovered Margarethe Neisser died in December 1942; this never seemed credible because Dr. Neisser committed suicide in October 1942, so I could not understand why she would not have killed herself at the same time. I contacted the family tree manager about this discrepancy, and she told me her data came from two other trees; however, upon reexamining those trees, the family tree manager realized she had erroneously transcribed Margarethe’s death date, and that in fact she had died in December 1941. While this makes much more sense, it turns out even this date was incorrect. According to Susanne Vogel’s account where she summarizes vital statistics for Dr. Neisser and his immediate family, Margarethe died on October 12, 1941. (Figures 7) I want to again caution readers to seriously question information found on other family trees, particularly when no supporting documentation is referenced or attached. Personally, I would rather omit data than incorporate faulty statistics in my family tree.
As a related aside, in an upcoming Blog post I will explain to readers how to use the difficult-to-navigate “Landesarchiv Berlin” database, containing information on births, marriages, and deaths for people who resided in the multiple boroughs and districts of Berlin. As it happens, I was able to locate the death register listing for Margarethe Neisser and confirm she died in October 1941 (Figures 8a-b); I’ve requested a copy of the death certificate, but the Landesarchiv currently has a four-month backlog in processing orders.
According to Susanne Vogel, her mother Margarethe Neisser suffered from chronic depression, and spent the last three years of her life in a sanatorium; it was here she committed suicide in October 1941 and where a funeral service was secretly held in the facility’s cellar. The need to hold the service in secret was likely due to prohibitions on Jewish funerals during the Nazi Era. Ending one’s life was referred to as “going on a journey into the distant country.”
Susanne Vogel spoke of her own circumstances during the war. She wanted to divorce her husband, Hans Vogel (1897-1973) (Figure 9), so that he could work as an art historian, his chosen profession; as the husband of a Jewish wife Hans was forced to do menial clerical work. Despite these circumstances, he would not agree to a divorce. Susanne also mentions that she had hoarded enough poison to end her life if that became necessary, likely Veronal and Scopolamine-Entodal.
Dr. Ernst Neisser’s first cousin, Luise “Lise” Neisser (1861-1942), former teacher, kept house and cooked for him. Circumstances for Jewish people were becoming increasingly restrictive—they could not obtain coal, they were not permitted to use public transportation, and they were only allowed to buy food between the hours of 4 and 5pm.
Whenever Hans and Susanne Vogel visited Ernst and Lise, they would secretly take big, heavy bags with Professor Neisser’s possessions, for example paintings. This was strictly prohibited and dangerous. Ernst may still have believed he would survive the war, and these material things would again matter.
Dr. Neisser and Lise had already decided they would take their own lives if they were ordered to present themselves for deportation. On September 30, 1942, Susanne decided spontaneously to visit them where they lived in Eichenallee [Charlottenburg, Berlin]. Upon arriving at her father’s apartment, she learned he and her aunt Lise had been ordered to present themselves for deportation to Theresienstadt the following morning; typically, Jews received their deportation orders a few weeks in advance. Upon learning of their critical situation, Susanne immediately went to a telephone booth, and called her husband, the sanatorium where her mother had died, the Jewish Community, and their attorney Karl von Lewinski (Figure 10), trying to find a hiding place for her father and aunt, all to no avail; ironically, Mr. v. Lewinski had by that time been able to procure an entry visa for Ernst and Lise to Sweden, but by then Jews could no longer legally leave Germany.
By the time Susanne returned to the apartment, several friends had already gathered there, including Susanne’s husband, as well as the director of the sanatorium who’d brought enough poison for Ernst and Lise. Ernst then opened the last bottle of wine he had saved for this event, which everybody partook of. All persons eventually said their goodbyes, and left Ernst and Lise to take the poison. The following morning the Gestapo had taken Lise to the morgue, but Ernst lingered in a coma for another four days at the Jewish Hospital where he’d been taken, before he too expired, never having regained consciousness. (Figure 11)
Susanne Vogel was investigated by the police department because her father’s clock and identity card were missing, which Susanne had in fact taken. The police also searched the apartment where Ernst and Lise had lived, but all personal papers had already been destroyed. A sympathetic detective superintendent accompanied Susanne to her father’s apartment to inquire about the missing objects, as well as the source of the poison, and “believed” her when she told him she didn’t know. The detective also questioned the building superintendent, who spoke kindly of Ernst and Lise, but she too could shed no light on what had happened to Dr. Neisser’s personal belongings.
Susanne discusses the difficulty she faced in convincing the Nazi authorities to allow her to cremate her aunt, as well as her father. Because the Gestapo had taken away Dr. Neisser’s suit, he was wrapped and cremated in a shawl.
Susanne demurs telling Lieselotte Dieckmann about the three years her mother spent in the sanatorium, as well as about the last three days she spent with her cousin Aenne Herrnstadt, who readers may vaguely recall was Agnes Stieda’s godmother and who was deported and murdered in Theresienstadt in 1943.
Susanne Vogel’s account of her father and aunt’s final days is difficult enough to read as a brief summary, so readers need only imagine how melancholy reading the document in its unabbreviated form must be. Still, it is my intention in a future post to present the complete translation so readers may understand the circumstances of Dr. Neisser’s final years, as well as those of similarly “vulnerable” Jews.