Dr. Siegfried Peltesohn, Part 2

Before starting in on part 2 of my biography of my great-grampa, Dr. Siegfried Peltesohn, I encourage anyone who hasn't already done so the read my entry on Theresienstadt. The history is very important for understanding a number of the events that take place in the following narrative.


From its very beginning, Theresienstadt received a total 649 rail transports of Jews, mostly from large cities such as Berlin, Prague, and Vienna. In looking through the list of deportations, my heart absolutely broke when I read about the Kindertransport that occured after the liquidation of Bialystok Ghetto; the 1,196 children and 53 adult caretakers passed through Theresienstadt on their way to their murder at Auschwitz. While I am... utterly horrified by the fact that there is a website called ExecutedToday.com, the description they have of this event is the most thorough I've found. And it's awful. Absolutely, completely, and in every way a horrifying example of the depravity that it terrifies me to know that humans are capable of.

But I digress.

Before they were deported my GGM sent weekly letters to her daughter, my gramma, in New York, reporting on the deteriorating situation in Berlin and their attempts to secure passage to the United States. Unfortunately, this never happened. Due to his being a decorated WWI veteran, my GGP, along with my GGM, was deported on Transport I/90 that left Berlin on 18 March, 1943, and arrived at Theresienstadt (located in what is now the Czech Republic) the next day. The information I've found indicates that they were listed as prisoners 11968 and 11969, respectively; I'd originally thought that these numbers might have been tattooed on their arms, but the tattooing system was only used to identify forced laborers at Auschwitz and so my GGM and GGP were spared at least this inhumanity.

(For anyone unfamiliar with the process, the original tattoos were done by slamming a metal stamp into the prisoner's flesh and then rubbing ink into the bleeding wound. I cringe to think of the agony. Later on they switched to using a single needle tattoo machine that was probably not unlike this 1940 American model. I'm tattooed (1, 2, 3), and... They hurt. A lot. Sure, some areas are not as bad as others, but they're still painful for someone in their 20's/30's, and the idea of one being crudely inflicted on someone in his mid-60's is... I'm glad they didn't have to endure that on top of everything else.)

Once at Theresienstadt, my GGM and GGP were seperated; she was sent to work in the "Hausdienst" (home service), doing general household chores for the camp, while on 1 April he was assigned to be the physician in the hospital's orthopedic outpatient clinic, Block E VI. By 3 September, 1943, he stated in an application to the camp for aid in the hospital, "Bei 165 cm Körpergröße wiege ich nur noch 48 kg netto. Ich bin alleiniger Arzt (ohne ärztliche Assistenz) zweier (großer) Ambulanzen für Orthopädie, und zwar von E VI Block und H V Block (allein durch diese letztere Ambulanz passierten vom 27.7. bis 24.8.43 (vier Wochen) laut Monatsbericht 334 Kranke). Jede Ordination bringt 20-30 und mehr Kranke, deren Behandlung nicht nur in Beratung wie auch in Verbänden aller Art … besteht, wodurch ich die bandagistische und die orthopädisch-mechanische Werkstatt wirkungsvoll zu entlasten suche. Endlich ließ und lasse ich mir die Fortbildung von Arztgehilfen angelegen sein" (translation: "At 165 cm tall, I weigh only 48 kg net. I am the sole doctor (without medical assistance) of two (large) outpatient orthopedics, from E VI block and HV block (alone at this latter clinic from 27 July until 24 August, 1943 (four weeks), according to the Monthly Bulletin, with 334 patients). Each transport brings 20-30 and more patients whose treatment is not only quick advice but also wound dressings of all kinds ... so I'm looking for bandages and to disburden the orthopedic-mechanical workshop effectively. Finally allow me and I will see to the training of a physician's assistant in this place." source

While trying to track down records of the hospital system at Theresienstadt, I came across a list of distinguished lecturers [http://www.makarovainit.com/list.htm] who gave presentations during their internment. I will admit to a small amount of egotistical disappointment when I didn't find my GGP's name on the list. But then I looked at the outcomes of those illustrious speakers. Of the more than 500 people on that list, fewer than 30 survived to see Liberation. The majority of the remainder were murdered, mostly in Auschwitz. My GGP wasn't snubbed from the speech circuit - he was brilliant and stayed quiet and innocuous. "Out of sight, out of mind," as it were - by not drawing attention to himself he was able to survive hell on Earth. This is not to say that he lost any of his scientific interest - far from it! He took copious notes and x-rays for future publication, many of which he was allowed to bring with him. In 1956 he actually published the following article, the importance of which I shall expand on later...

Go to source to see full-sized images.

 Not individually in bookstores for sale

Tibia recuverata post amputationem cruris

By Dr. Siegfried Peltesohn

With 1 picture

Reprinted from "Journal of Orthopaedics and its border areas"

87 Volume, 4 Issue, page 684-685. 1956

Edited by Prof. Dr. MAX LONG, Munich

Ferdinand Enke / Publisher / Stuttgart

Go to source to see full-sized images.

Go to source to see full-sized images.

[Note for any medical professionals reading this: I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. There are a number of orthopedics-specific terms in here that I’m using Google Translate to figure out with no real understanding of how they work in terms of sentence structure. Please send me any corrections you might have! I want to be accurate.]

I have seen 1 case of tibia recurvata while in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where I was interned from 1943 to 1945 and worked as a specialist in orthopedics, which is unique in morphological and etiological aspects. I was able to take the x-rays and some unfortunately short notes to Switzerland and then to the USA.

The case concerns the 17 November 1896-born Mrs. Auguste Bl.-Ax. I saw them in June 1944 at the request of the physician of a home for the blind, where she was active as a nurse until she was incapable of doing so because of malnutrition.

Background: Mrs. Auguste Bl.-Ax. was wounded by shrapnel in the right leg in late 1915 while a nurse in an Austrian field hospital. Immediate amputation in the middle of the leg. Early 1916 prosthesis in [a] native hospital in Vienna by Adolf Lorenz. Since the end of the stump was not capable of tolerating stress, the amputees got a wooden leg with the load perpendicular to the bent knee. It developed a knee joint contracture; therefore in 1920 they cut through the semitendinosus [muscle], semimembranosus [muscle], and biceps to repair the knee joint. Now the patient received a normal prosthetic leg with movable knee. So it was that in 1942 [she] was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. There she lay in the hospital for a longer time due to osteoporosis in the ribs. Since about the beginning of March 1944 the stump should have been changed, [but because it wasn’t] the prosthesis no longer works and the patient is therefore bedridden.

Findings in June 1944: Medium-sized, heavily emaciated woman. One feels at various ribs thickenings already painful to light pressure.

It lacks the right foot and about two-thirds of the leg. The stump is about 14 cm long, conical, not robust at the end, can be flexed on the thigh by about 90°.

Viewed from the side, the leg, if anything, is in the form of a bayonet. The form us particularly evident when looking at the front contour: The normal femoral outline follows downward about 8 cm, the uppermost leg piece is attached [obliquely/diagonally] in a rearwardly extending line. Next it closes bluntly downwards, [at an angle to?] the tibial shaft.

X-ray image (see figure, tibiofibular, knee in strongest possible active stretching): All bones deficient in calcium; relatively dense shadows [appear in?] the posterior cortex of the femur and tibia stumps. Shape of the femur normal. The knee joint gap extends obliquely from the front bottom to the top rear. The tibia joint surface articulates with the ventral half of the femoral condyles. The tibial plateau is very deficient in calcium; nowhere are there specially adapted trabeculae systems to be seen. In place of the tibial tuberosity there is a deep dent. The tibial diaphysis forms, if anywhere, with the epiphyseal in a forwardly open angle of about 150°. The tibia stump is about 9 cm, the fibula stump is about 14 cm long, both have irregular exostoses at their distal ends.

Remarks: The prosthesis of the patient had become much too heavy for the emaciated stump and for the poor, malnourished patient.

Unfortunately, the only help I could provide was to plump the prosthesis cup. Whether it was carried out and what has become of the patient, I do not know.

The tibia recurvata described here differs from the cases described so far, in that the bending of the tibia occurs in a lower leg amputation stump, and therefore the transformation mechanism was unusual. Morphologically, it hardly looks different from the cases described by myself and others. Therefore, it is unnecessary to go into the details of the malformation.

I also [will not] discuss the various possibilities for the timing of their creation. Similarly, I do not agree to the etiologic role of interesting situations, ie the role of tenotomies and the violent stretching of joint extensions and any metabolic abnormalities.

After exclusion of other possibilities I reach the conclusion that the tibia recurvata in this case began after the amputation in 1916, when the patent was 19 years old,  as a result of abnormal pressure on the growth plate of the tibia combined with the severity of the protruding supporting surface on the free-hanging stump, leading to the pathological form of the tibia.

Literature before 1946 refers to: Karen Lübschitz: “A case of Tibia recurvata”, in Acta radiologica Scandinavica, 1946, Bd. XXVII

[Something] author’s note: Whitestone 57, (NY, USA), 15-02 146th Street, d / o Drs Grishman

I do not know much else about the specifics of the great-grandparents' time in Theresienstafdt, although given some of the accounts I've read from other prisoners I'm actually fairly alright with that. I know that they became very ill with diptheria among other things. I know from family stories that at one point my GGM broke her leg (thigh?) and that my GGP fixed it with a nail. I know that my GGM was slated to be on what turned out to be the final transport from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz but, due to a stroke of luck, was sick and so not included on the transport.

I know an interesting piece of history that I'm shocked I never knew about before, and even more shocked hasn't been made into a movie because I think it could be made into a fantastic Oliver Stone biopic, with Philip Rham as Jean-Marie Musy and Ulrich Noethen reprising his role as Heinrich Himmler.

For the full story I'd recommend reading either  "Deal  with the Devil" from the Times of Israel, "When Himmler Resisted Hitler" from aish.com, and "Holocaust Rescue - Mission and Story" from musy.net.

The abridged version (which barely does the whole thing justice but for brevity's sake shall have to suffice) is such:

Jean-Marie Musy served on the Federal Council of Switzerland from 1919-1934, first as its Finance Minister and then as President of the Confederation. During this time he met and befriended Heinrich Himmler, then a rising star in the SS and eventually a leading member of the Nazi Party. Following the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), Musy initially supported the new government and its belief in the need "to reduce the prominence of Jews in economic and public life" (source); however, by the early 1940's he had discovered the full extent of the Nazi party's "Final Solution" and was adamantly against the continued mass genocide of the Jewish people. Around that time he was approached by several representitives of a Zionist organization who beseeched him to intervene with his friend Himmler and put an end to the killings. On 3 November, 1944, Heinrich Himmler and Jean-Marie Musy road a train together on a German military train from Breslau to Vienna and began persuading him to intervene. Musy pointed out that the war was not going well for Germany and, in the end, it was very likely that the Allied forces would prove victorious, meaning that commanding members of the Nazi party would be put on trial as war criminals and likely be sentenced to death. Musy argued that if Himmler did the unthinkable and went against Hitler, ending the death camps and freeing the Jews, he might get a reprieve in sentencing during the inevitable war tribunals.

There is much debate in the historical community as to whether or not Himmler's decree on 24 November, 1944, that the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau and its 51 sub-camps were to be destroyed were a direct result of this conversation, but one thing is known for sure: As part of the arrangement and after some intensive financial negotiations, Musy agreed to pay Himmler sums of money for the transfer of Jews from the camps and ghettos to save havens in places in Switzerland. I've found so many different figures for how many lives were being bartered for various amounts of money I will not cite any of them because I honestly do not know which are correct. I know for example that 1700 Hungarian Jews were sent from Bergen-Belsen to Switzerland, but not what the ransom was. (source)

What's important to my history is the story told here:

On the morning of February 5th, 1945, on the platform of Ghetto Theresienstadt, 1200 excited men, women, and children boarded the elegant cars of a train, very different from the trains they had become accustomed to in the past months.

Each of them passed an inspection to make sure that their appearance was in order, all wearing their "Shabbat attire," carrying one suitcase and one hand-bag filled with food and drink for the journey. … Each of them held a new, stamp-less passport and travel tickets. …

The train took off and reached Konstanz, on the Swiss border, the next day. There, they were greeted by Swiss border guards. Upon the arrival of the train to St. Gallen, they were welcomed by the "Vaad Hatzalah," founded by the Jews of Switzerland for assisting the Jewish refugees and transferring them from the death camps. …

This was the Last Transport from Theresienstadt.

And among that group of 1200 were my my GGP and GGM. Saved from hell and travelling to safety.

After that point, I really don't know much of anything about my great-grandparents' story. It is an unfortunate truth that many families of Holocaust survivors just Do Not Talk About It, and mine is no exception. In fact, the moment my grandparents set foot on American soil my grampa swore never to speak German again. My dad knows a lot of what I want to know, but he's generally better at answering specific questions than at weaving stories and at least for the moment I don't know what specific questions to ask or how to ask the questions I do have. (Though I'm secretly hoping that when he reads this part he'll be inspired to start sending me stories - I'm looking at you, Dad!) So instead I shall present the snippets of information I do have below:

* I know that when the refugees were taken to St. Gallen they were immediately brought to a make-shift center and given temporary straw beds; this may not seem like much, but given the harsh living condition of the Ghetto it was a luxury. They were then given hot food and medical treatment. I found a series of photos that a soldier took of the refugees upon arrival, but both my dad and I have looked through them and haven't recognized my GGM or GGP.

* These are the identity and travel documents that my GGP received upon his arrival in Switzerland:

Identity documents provided to my great-grampa upon arrival in Switzerland.

Translation:

The police devision of the Swiss Federal Justice and Police Departments certify on the basis of its examination the identity of the following illiterate foreigner:

Family name: Peltesohn
First name: Siegfried
Born on: 13 August 1876
Profession: Medicine
Comments: ___
Height: 165 cm
Hair: Grey
Eyes: Brown
Nose: Normal
Face: Oval
Additional features: */*

Second page, with visa stamps.

Travel arrangements provided by the Red Cross and other volunteer organizations.

Translation:

Name: Peltesohn
First name: Siegfried
Sex: M
Birth Year: 1876
Status: Married
City of Origin: Berlin
Country: Germany
Last Residence: Theresienstadt
Country: Switzerland Czechoslovakia
Profession: Doctor
...or the Breadwinner: -
Month of Arrival in Switzerland: July
Embarkation: Le Havre
Steamer (ship): Brazil
Disembarkation: New York
Destination: New York
Package Shipping Price: 970.-
Price of Train Tickets: -
Original Price of Ship Tickets: 970.-
Price of Overseas Domestic Tickets:
Were they travelers, emigrants, or passengers: Emigrants

Additionally, the following letter was given to him:

Recommendation of Character 

Translation, courtesy my dear friend Greg Hanneman:

Attestation:

Mr. Siegfried Peltesohn, born August 13, 1876, of German origin, came to take refuge in Switzerland on February 7, 1945, coming from the Theresienstadt concentration camp.  He currently wishes to immigrate to the United States of America.

To our knowledge, his conduct has given rise to no complaints during his stay in Switzerland.

Bern, February 11, 1946.

* My gramma did not find out that her parents had survived Shoah until she saw their names in a newspaper. I don't know if she saw it first in the New York Times or the Aufbau, but I've found articles from both. I will openly admit this: The first time I saw the article from the Aufbau while I was online at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and saw their names on the list, I started crying. When a librarian came over to see if I was alright I told her why I was crying... and she began crying as well. I can only begin to imagine how my gramma must have felt, as I remember her being a very emotionally reserved (but loving) woman.

Front page of the issue of the Aufbau containing the article on the Freedom Transport.

Spread including the actual article.

Close-up of the article.

Translation:

As the " New York Times " published a few days ago, a message came from Switzerland that a transport of 1200 freed Jews had arrived in Switzerland from Theresienstadt and that there would be more transports to follow, a message which the Jewish world first treated with incredulity.

And yet: An almost fantastic rescue operation has come about, which was successful thanks to the efforts of a New York Jewish organization, the VAAD HATZALAH, which acted in Switzerland with diplomatic skill, to the unending gratitude of those Jews whose safety was secured and their families.

The Vaad Hatzalah (Emergency Council), which stands closely with the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, sat down with representation in connection with Switzerland and gave ways and means to contact the German government through intermediaries. According to a report by the Jewish Telegraph Agency of Geneva, neutrality seemed the most appropriate, so twenty Orthodox Jews chose the former Swiss Federal Councillor JEAN M. MUSY as the Swiss representative of the Vaad.

The first result of these negotiations with Musy was certainly surprisingly enough: a group of 1,200 Jews who had been released from the concentration camp at Theresienstadt arrived in Switzerland on 7 February in the evening. The Swiss Justice Minister EDWARD STEIGER has announced in a press conference the hope that more such transports will be accommodated in Swiss refugee camps, with the obligation to leave Switzerland at the earliest opportunity.
It is obvious that the Musy-led negotiations with Berlin are extremely delicate in nature and their details have been - at least for the time being - kept from public debate. However, we are able, thanks to the kindness of the Vaad Hatzalah (132 Nassau Street, New York City), to publish an initial list of over 500 persons rescued from Theresienstadt on page 28 .

In this context we would like to point out that the list contains not only the names of people from Germany, but also Dutch and Czech Jews. The number next to the name is the relevant year of birth.

We cannot provide any more information beyond this list. We therefore ask you to refrain from any kind of queries. If we hear more, we will publish it in the next "Aufbau."

The List

My great-grandparents' names on the list.

source

source

source

* Remember that article I posted earlier that my GGP posted about the case of an amputated leg he treated in Theresienstadt? In a letter to the Leo Baeck Institute he describes his reasons for publishing the article, which only endear him all the more to me.

source

source

Translation: (Special thanks to Professor Christian Hallstein of the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Modern Languages for helping me transcribe this letter in order for me to translate it, as I come from a long line of doctors with terrible handwriting that's hard to decipher.)

Dear Mrs. Muehsam (Muchsam?)!
 I have received your frdl [friendly] writing of 19 June and thank you very much.
 I would have answered earlier if I had not just attacked by one of those dreadful virus infections that are often fatal to old people. Even now I'm still too weak to receive visitors, let alone have you visit you visit. If the former should be possible, I will keep you informed.
 Enclosed please find the requested image [of] Joachimsthals; he was then about 45 years old. It was published as a supplement to my obituary of him in Volume XXXIV of the Journal of Orthopead. Chir [Orthopedic Surgery]. I found this and other copies of my work with my children, the Doctors Arthur and Edith Grishman, who had the good fortune and intelligence to emigrate here in March 1939.

Although my own person is hardly worthy to be preserved for posterity in effigy, I'm vain enough to fulfill your request for a picture of me, an image that perhaps even has historical interest, as it - as far as I remember - was quickly made ​​for the accompanying "post card," as the rumor circulated that the Jews would be deprived of their identity cards.
 Otherwise you have to enjoy that I sent you a (amateur) picture of my wife Alice née Maass (and me) that was taken at the time of our golden wedding anniversary (3 May, 1958).

Finally I put after these lines a copy [of] an (incidentally heartily insignificant) orthopedic notification I published to let our German colleagues , some of whom were fanatical anti-Semites, to let them know that I had survived their diabolical machinations, and to tell my friends my former address.

I am with friendly greetings,
Yours,
Dr. Siegfried Peltesohn

And that's really all I know. My GGP passed away in January of 1968 at the ripe old age of 91. I don't know his exact cause of death, nor the exact date, but what's important to me is that is was in the safety and comfort of freedom and safety in New York instead of in the horrors of the camps.

So that's the end of this biography of my great-grandfather, Dr. Siegfried Peltesohn, though I really hope to find more information that I can put up here. If for no other reason, I'd love to leave as much of a legacy of our family as possible to my cousin's adorable little babies, and any future nieces and nephews and cousins I may have. That's the point of it all, really, is it not?



Very special thanks in writing this go out to:

* My dad and my aunt for providing me with information and scans of documents to include in my writings.
* Professor Christian Hallstein, Carnegie Mellon University Department of Modern Languages, for his help in transcribing my great-grandfather's writings
* Dr. Ruth Jacob, author of "Jüdische Ärzte in Schöneberg - Topographie einer Vertreibung" ("Jewish Doctors in Schöneberg - Topography of an Expulsion"), for writing a history of Jewish doctors deported from the Schöneberg district of Berlin including my great-grandfather in it.
* My friend Greg Hanneman, PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, for helping me accurately translate French, a language I have not had a lesson in since I was 6.
* My beloved wonderful friend Beverly Tamburino, for her support and encouragment and love and help in laughing at our inability to read handwriting.
* Scott and Dmitri, fellow regulars at what I think of as the Cheers of coffee shops ("Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came"), who helped with many German translations.
* Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

General Resources:

* The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
* Yad Vashem
* The Jewish Virtual Library
* The Leo Baeck Institute
* Beit Theresienstadt