Ruth Ucko: personal papers

Ruth Krzesny was born to the unmarried Frieda Wolzendorff née Krzesny on 19.2.1914 in Breslau. She was put up for adoption by Frieda's father and Frieda on 11.6.1918. The adoptive parents, Siegfried and Martha Ucko (nee Roloff), had answered an advertisement for a Jewish child to be adopted in 1918. An authenticated copy of a Notarial adoption contract dated (11 Feb 1918), 5 July 1938, (1651/1/15) states that the signatories include the adoptive parents, Frieda Krzesny and father, Salomon. The identity of the real father is unknown. Ruth's adoptive mother died in 1921 and Ruth spent some years in a boarding school in Switzerland. She worked for her adoptive father in his shoe store for several years after leaving school in 1928. Her adoptive father died in 1933 before she was 21 and she was looked after by a guardian. From 1932 to 1938 she worked for a state run lottery as a clerk. In 1939 she immigrated to England, where she gained employment as a child minder, a nurse and later was employed in the fashion industry. This is well documented amongst her papers.

It is also evident from these papers that she maintained close contact with her real mother, Frieda, who had taken the name Wolzendorff after a short-lived marriage in 1926. In fact, while Frieda was incarcerated in Lichtenburg concentration from 1937 to 1939 in so-called 'protective custody', she made Ruth her Power of Attorney. After her release she assisted Frieda in immigrating to England. Ruth married Edward Thomas Shellard in 1947 and they moved to Hove in the 1950s. Ruth died in 2002 in Brighton.

Ruth Shellard (geb. Ucko) papers- 3 boxes

Donor: Anna Crook