Margrit Wreschner-Rustow

On a Saturday morning, all three were arrested and taken to the transit camp at Westerbork.

In January/February 1944, the small family was put with other women and their children into a group of about 60 people, to be deported by train to the women’s concentration camp at Ravensbruck.

Margrit, her sister Charlotte and her mother Frederike arrived in Ravensbruck after three grueling days of transport. Unlike the other women, their hair was not sheared off. All the women were showered and given the same, blue and grey-striped inmates garb. They also received their prisoner numbers and their stars to wear, made of a Yellow Star and a Red Star which they had to sew onto their jackets.

The first four weeks we had to spend in quarantine in a separate barrack. Margrit later volunteered for work at Siemens, but her sister initially refused to do any labor. Charlotte was made to yield and put to work in a SS-factory. Unlike Margrit, she had a quota to fill there. To increase the pressure, dogs were set on the women. Margrit was not subjected to this, as Siemens was not entitled to punish the women. Later her sister managed to secretly follow Margrit to her work at Siemens, and from then on continued to work in this somewhat more protected environment.

Margrit wanted to work for Siemens because she knew the work would be done in enclosed rooms. For this she had to pass a test at which you had to fold paper and wire into certain shapes. Additionally, this test of dexterity also included an eye test. Margret passed both and was given a place in hall 12 under the supervision of a Herr Stoeber. Her work consisted of coiling wire onto spools and afterwards dip them in lacquer. This made them conductive. Then they needed to be baked in an oven for a day. Margrit found this work extremely boring, and once even fell asleep during it.
Later she worked as a forewoman, making resistors from carbon dust, which were used for example in pressing irons. Since Margrit knew several languages, she was able to hold this elevated position as a forewoman, especially since her native language was German,it was greatly appreciated. It also earned her the privilege of being allowed to talk to the civilians working for Siemens, who were sources of information for her from time to time. While the women did their work for Siemens, female SS-overseers were in charge at the factories. Unlike the wardens in the SS-camps, these had no dogs at least. Some of them were even friendly.

Margrit’s mother Frederike did not pass the aptitude test and continued to be exposed to the much harsher working conditions for jobs in and around the main camp.
Her sister was able to pass the test and was allowed to work in the workshops of Siemens . However, it was not possible for the sisters to work together. Charlotte always had to work the day shift from 6am to 6pm, while Margrit worked in alternating shifts of a week of nights followed by a week of day shifts. In order to keep contact, they would leave letters for one another, which was forbidden. The letters were one day found by female overseers, and after this the sisters were thought to be in a homosexual relationship.

In the course of time, Siemens wanted better working conditions for the laborers. The women were malnourished and often too weak, so they regularly passed out at their workplaces. Therefore a production facility of Siemens was set up next to the main camp towards the end of 1944. Margrit and her sister were from then on able to sleep and stay in the Siemens facility. Her mother was left on her own in the SS-camp. The conditions at Siemens were better insofar as they had better beds and more food. There were also work-related bonuses.

There were no closets. You kept your things in your bed, including the food you managed to save up, you hid it in there. As the inmates were envious of it, they stole it from each other.

Every prisoner was allowed to write one letter per week. Margrit wrote to her siblings, but had to hide her true condition because of the strict German censorship. Parcels send to her were confiscated. One such was supposed to reach her, at a time when her mother was already sick and near starvation. It was a food parcel, but it would have come too late for her mother. She died on 8th January 1944. Before she passed, Margrit and Charlotte were allowed to see their mother one last time.

At a roll call, about three weeks after the death of their mother, the names of Margrit and her sister were called out. The prisoners were told that they would be deported to Theresienstadt in order to receive a >>Himmelfahrtsspritze( “Ascension injection”, TN)<<. Both were terribly afraid. Their fate though, was not quite clear from the viewpoint of the SS. It was possible that prisoners deported to Theresienstadt might survive. With German defeat looming at this time, no-one was supposed to “get out” who showed signs of having been treated neglectfully or even tortured. After all, such evidence could after a lost war be used to document the atrocities committed by the SS. The prisoners to be deported therefore had to undergo a medical examination. Many inmates had scabies, which is why dermatological examinations were also performed. The doctor told Margrit and her sister that their skin showed no signs of scratching or scarring. After the examination, the siblings were not allowed to return to the sleeping quarters. On the next day, Margrit and Charlotte and three other prisoners were transported to Theresienstadt. To Berlin, they traveled in normal passenger trains, but there they were put onto a train of the Wehrmacht and continued on via Prague to Theresienstadt. On the way there they were told that they should not be afraid, that the war would be over soon. But they continued to live in fear. For four weeks they were imprisoned in a small cellar room in Theresienstadt. They were interrogated by SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel, TN) Adolf Eichmann and four of his SS-officers. Released from interrogations, they had to hold out for liberation in the ghetto for the elderly in Theresienstadt., fearing for their lives. They were forbidden to speak about their experience in Ravensbrueck and the persecution of Jews.

About three months later, on 9 May 1945, Margrit and Charlotte were liberated by the Russian army. The soldiers looked more like partisans, as they were wearing no uniforms. The SS withdrew and the Red Cross took over the camp. Margrit and her sister decided to run away. The driver of a truck gave them a lift to Prague. There were no trains from Prague. After three weeks, they were able to return, via Pilsen, to the south of the Netherlands. This journey back home took them ten days. At home they found out that their brother and his family had all died of typhoid on the way or after arriving at Theresienstadt. In the Netherlands they first found shelter in a pension, until they heard from friends that their house had not been destroyed and was still in a sound condition.

Margrit and Charlotte managed to get started with their new life fairly quickly though. They tried to live a normal life and involve themselves in the new social order. They formed youth groups, and their house became a venue and meeting point for relatives who were able to return from the concentration camps. But not all survived, and Margrit suffered terribly from the loss of her school friends.
She applied for a scholarship in Geneva, obtained it and went for a one-year course. Margrit worked with Jewish children who had lost their parents in the war. In 1947, her elder sister visited the other siblings in America, which led Margrit and Charlotte to emigrate to the United States. Here, Margrit continued her work with children and with her studies.
The foundation of the state of Israel prompted Margrit and Charlotte to move there in 1949, where Margrit lived and worked until 1956. During that time, Margrit decided to become a psychoanalyst. Her sister stayed in Israel and became the vice-mayor of Jerusalem, while Margrit went to the US as a student. She successfully finished her studies there and started to work as a therapist and psychoanalyst. Her studies helped her to come to terms with the past.
She married a native Berliner in the US, who had four children from previous marriages. They had no offspring together. Margrit Wreschner-Rustow died in the United States on 19 December 2014.