Elsbeth Heckers fonds

Elsbeth Heckers (nee Schoepser) was born December 30, 1906 in a small town in East Prussia. She was the youngest of 5 children, 4 girls and one boy. When she finished school she went to Berlin to train as an Administrator of large institutions, such as hospitals and seniors homes. She worked at various Jewish establishments in Berlin, Hamburg, and Aachen (Aix), until forced to stop by the Nazis. After that she was only permitted to work as a cleaning lady. She married Hubert Heckers on June 5, 1934. He was a catholic and under very dire threats, was ordered by the Nazis to divorce his Jewish wife which he did in 1936. It is believed that Hubert was one of a few people who were given a choice due to him being one of the foremost architects at the time and enjoyed the priviledges of government work and connections. Elsbeth had a daughter named Ursula Rosemarie Martha Margherita (married name Dapery) (b. January 15, 1935). In June or July of 1939 she took her daughter to England where they lived out the remaining War years. Her two sisters, Mika and Trude, received their exit papers in September 1939, but there was not enough time for them to arrange their departure from Germany prior to the official declaration of war. Her brother Heinrich, and sister Trude died in Auschwitz along with their families. Her sister Marie survived various concentration camps. Elsbeth worked any job she could find while in England to try and give her daughter the best life possible. During the winter of 1940, she worked at a large manor house in North Wales. One day, on her way home from work, she slipped and feel into a snowdrift and remained there for 4 hours before a postman accidentally stepped on her and pulled her out. She was in hospital for months, paralyzed and was told she would never walk again without the aid of crutches. During that statement, she was standing at one end of a 30-bed ward, being released by the doctor. She promptly threw the crutches at the doctor, walked the entire length of the ward and back and then collapsed at the doctor's feet. A few days later she was send to a Convalescent Home, without crutches. Elsbeth and Ursula immigrated to Canada in 1951, leaving from Düsseldorf, Germany on October 30, 1951, and arriving in Canada in December, 1951. She worked as a dietician at a small Jewish Hospital in Montreal. She then did various odd jobs until she eventually went to work for a library where she stayed until cataracts forced her to stop in 1960. In 1961 she took on the job of looking after her newly-born granddaughter, Angela so her daughter and son in-law could continue to work. In 1965, her son-in-law walked out and Elsbeth supplied a stable home for her granddaughter for 10 years, including 3 years in Western Australia from 1968 to 1971. In 1977, she and her family moved to Ottawa where she spent the rest of her life. In July 1982 her health began to deteriorate. She suffered from Parkinson's Disease, arthritis, blindness, and finally cancer. She died August 10, 1985 at 8:20pm, with her daughter beside her in her own home. She was buried in the Bank Street Memorial Gardens on August 12, 1985.

Donated by Ursula Dapery