Hohner Imperial IIA accordion and case carried by Hilde Anker on a Kindertransport

Hilde Lotte Anker was born on May 29, 1926, in Berlin, Germany, to Georg Jakob Willie Anker and Gertrud Gottschalk Anker. She had two older sisters: Eva Kate, born June 6, 1922, and Dodi Grete, born May 9, 1924. Hilde’s father Georg was born on May 15, 1885, in Danzig, to Simon and Henrietta Anker. Simon founded a successful grain import-export business in 1877 and was prominent in the Jewish community. Georg had eleven siblings, including Arthur, Leo, Heinrich, and Paul. Georg served as an officer in the German Army in World War I (1914-1918). He moved to Berlin in 1921 and opened a men’s clothing manufacturing business. Hilde’s mother Gertrud was born on March 24, 1894, in Schlawe, to Hugo and Bertha Wolffberg Gottschalk. Hugo operated a grain mill that had been in the family since 1873. Gertrud had three siblings: Bruno, born July 3, 1890, Kaethe, born October 14, 1892, and Nanny, born March 13, 1888. Bruno, a law student, died on February 10, 1911, of pneumonia. Nanny and her husband Arthur Lewin had two children, Ludwig and Ursel (Ursula). Kaethe converted to Protestantism to marry Max Knipfer and the couple had one son, Guenther. On May 15, 1921, Georg and Gertrud married. The family was prosperous and cultured. In January 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany. Berlin seemed to change overnight. The next day, Hilde saw uniformed Nazis posting signs in the windows of Jewish shops, discouraging people from shopping there. One of their neighbors was a Nazi and forbid her daughter from playing with Hilde. After Hilde’s maternal grandfather Hugo died on July 31, 1934, her grandmother Bertha and aunt Nanny moved to an apartment across the street. Hilde’s paternal grandfather Simon died in 1935. In approximately 1936, Hilde, 10, applied to the public secondary school that her older sisters attended. She passed the entrance exam, but was dened admission because she was Jewish. Hilde attended the Goldschmidt school, a Jewish school in the Berlin suburbs that opened in 1935 for the Jewish students and teachers who had been kicked out of public schools. It took an hour to get to the school and Hilde had to run to the train station to avoid being beaten by the Hitler Youth. Several male teachers were arrested and sent to concentration camps and some did not return. Hilde’s father Georg often had to leave the home for days at a time to avoid to being arrested. Georg packed the family valuables in a shipping container and sent it to the United States, where his brothers Arthur, Heinrich, and Paul had emigrated in approximately 1937. In 1938, Hilde’s sisters Eva and Dodi were forced out of public school and went to the Goldschmidt school. On November 9 and 10, 1938, the Kristallnacht pogrom occurred. On the morning of the 10th, Hilde, Eva, and Dodi went to school and saw their synagogue burning. After they returned home, their father took them around Berlin on the streetcar, so they would witness the burning synagogues and destroyed Jewish stores. Following Kristallnacht, Georg decided that the family had to leave Germany. Hilde and her sisters applied to go to Great Britain on a Kindertransport [Children’s Transport]. Georg’s brother Leo lived there and was willing to take the three girls. On June 12, 1939, Hilde, Eva, and Dodi left Berlin by train. When they reached Bremen, the Gestapo searched their luggage for valuables and dumped their belongings, so carefully packed by their mother, on the ground. They sailed on the SS Europa and arrived in England on June 14. Their uncle Leo sent Eva to work on a vicarage farm and put Hilde and Dodi in a boarding school. Later that summer, Hilde and her sisters were reunited with their parents. On July 12, Georg was warned by a friend in the police station that he and Gertrud were going to be arrested and deported the following day. On July 13, the couple bought plane tickets to Copenhagen. They were questioned at the airport but were able to leave because their Danzig passports did not state their religion. After a brief stay in Denmark, Georg and Gertrud went to England. Hilde and Dodi lived with them in London, but it was unsafe because of the constant bombing so they were sent to the country to live with Eva. On September 20, 1940, the Anker family sailed from Liverpool on the SS Nova Scotia, arriving in Boston on October 5. The family settled in Van Nuys, California, where Georg established a chicken farm. They Americanized their names to George, Gertrude, Dorothy, and Hilda. Dorothy, age 23, died on December 17, 1947. On August 21, 1949, Hilda married Hershel Fogelson (1923-1999). The couple lived in Los Angeles and had three sons. Hilda worked as a teacher. Most of Hilda’s family perished in the Holocaust. On September 11, 1942, Hilda’s maternal grandmother Bertha, and aunt, Nanny, were deported to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp. Bertha had a chance to go to the US in 1941 but refused to leave Nanny. Bertha died in Theresienstadt on November 23, 1942. Nanny was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp on May 16, 1944, and killed immediately. Nanny’s daughter Ursula had been institutionalized in Berlin and was deported to Auschwitz on March 12, 1943, where she was immediately killed. In January 1944, Hilda’s maternal aunt Kaethe was deported to Theresienstadt, even though she had converted to Protestantism. Her son Guenther, who served in the German Army, was put in a labor camp, but both survived the war. Hilda’s father George, age 69, died on April 6, 1955. Hilda’s mother Gertrude, age 75, passed away on November 4, 1969. Hilda’s sister Eva, age 91, passed away on November 7, 2013.

The accordion was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003 by George J. Fogelson, the son of Hilda Anker Fogelson.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of George J. Fogelson

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.