Rolf Daniel Otto Falksohn was born in Berlin in 1925 to Albert Falksohn (1892-1943) and Erna Falksohn (b. Brunke) (1893-1965). He had a sister Tutta aka Lydia (1915-1992), who had emigrated to Palestine in 1934 and a half-brother, Kurt (1910-c1960). Rolf's family on his father's side came from a German speaking Jewish community in Courland, Latvia. Rolf's mother, Erna, converted to Judaism when she married Albert. After the latter's death in the Jewish hospital, Berlin, in early 1943, Erna was, in accordance with the Nuremberg race laws, allowed to continue to live in Berlin as a 'privileged Jewess' throughout the remainder of the war. She emigrated to Palestine after the war only to return to Berlin some years later. Rolf escaped to England on a Kindertransport in July 1939. After a brief sojourn on a farm in Kent with many other newly arrived child refugees, he spent the next 2 years on a Haschara camp in Devon, where the 100+ children and young adults from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were being prepared for life on a kibbutz in Palestine. The outbreak of war and the change in the political situation in Palestine prevented most from reaching their destination and Rolf, like many others, made his home in the UK.
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Chronological by document type
This collection contains papers relating to the family of Rolf Falksohn and includes birth marriage and death certificates (1863/1/1-13); war time correspondence from Rolf in London, to his sister, Tutta, in Palestine (digital); pre war correspondence between Rolf's father Albert (1891-1943), Rolf and Tutta (digital); postwar correspondence from Rolf's aunt Trude in Berlin (digital); copy documentation regarding Rolf's uncle and aunt Leo Segall (1886-1943) and Manya Segall nee Falksohn (1892-1943) (1863/1/11); photgraphs (digital and some printouts: 1863/2/1-25)
Rolf Falksohn: Family papers