Eva Mills: family papers
http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/gb-003348-wl1816 an entity of type: Record
Gertrude Najman (née Linde) was born in Danzig in 1884. She married Jankiel Najman, a Polish Jew (born in Pultusk in 1894) in 1915. They had one daughter, Eva, who was born in 1924. The family moved into their newly built property in Bohnsdorf near Berlin in 1933. Jankiel was expelled to Warsaw in October 1938 as all Polish people were ordered to leave Germany. Gertrude arranged for their daughter to go to England on a Kindertransport in December 1938. In September 1939, Jankiel who in the meantime had been allowed to return as his wife was unable to run the household on her own due to an injury, was arrested and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Gertrude was forced to sell her house as Jews were not entitled to own property.
This collection contains the personal papers of Eva Mills and her mother Gertrude Najman. Eva was sent to England on a Kindertransport in 1938 whilst her parents fled Germany separately aiming to reach Palestine. Eva's father, Jankiel Najmann, managed to get to Haifa in 1944 after spending several months at Ferramonti di Tarsia internment camp in Italy. Her mother, Gertrude Najmann, became a prisoner at Semlin concentration camp in Yugoslavia. She survived and was released in May 1942. Gertrude was unable to leave Yugoslavia until the end of the Second World War when she joined her husband in Haifa.
Family papers including different versions of Gertrude Najman's memoirs entitled 'Journey to Palestine' ('Reise nach Palästina'); semi-biographical account of the life, escape and misery of a Yugoslavian Jewish boy during the Nazi regime entitled 'Lost youth' ('Verlorene Jugend') by Gertrude Najman; correspondence with Jewish writer Otto Zarek regarding the publication of 'Lost youth'; family correspondence; restitution claim paper and exhibition catalogues relating to the work of Eva Mills; recording of an interview with Eva Mills and report regarding a project about Jews in Berlin-Treptow which includes the story of Eva Mills. Also included are photographs; obituaries and press cuttings concerning Otto Zarek (1898-1958); press cuttings regarding Nazi atrocities and a handbill.