Ellen Nathan was the daughter of Ruth Nathan, who is also listed in this Memorial Book. She was born on October 25 in Frankfurt - presumably in the Jewish Hospital at Gagernstraße 36. Her mother was unmarried and had sought shelter in the Neu-Isenburg Home of the Jewish Women’s Association during her pregnancy. There, mother and daughter returned shortly after Ruth's birth for several weeks before moving to Frankfurt am Main. Presumably, Ruth and Ellen Bierhoff did not live together in Frankfurt, because Ellen was registered to the Children's Home of "Weibliche Fürsorge" in Frankfurt am Main (Volker Mahnkopp: documentation for persecuted persons at the Frankfurt Children's Home of the Female Welfare Association, Hans-Thoma- 24, unpublished manuscript).

Ruth Nathan married Herbert Bierhoff, who originated from Borgentreich (Höxter district), at a time which is not known. After the wedding, Ellen bore the surname Bierhoff and lived with her parents at “Oberste Gasse” 35  in Kassel no later than January 1940. Whether Herbert Bierhoff was Ellen's father or whether he adopted the child from his wife's previous relationship is uncertain. The family lived in Kassel until 1941.

On December 9, 1941, Herbert, Ruth and Ellen Bierhoff were deported from Kassel to the Riga ghetto. The family lived there for several years. What happened to her afterward is not proved by historical sources. The following information is based on a play by Sigi Ziering, who is from Kassel. The then 13-year-old was deported to Riga together with Herbert, Ruth, and Ellen Bierhoff. He survived the Holocaust. After the Second World War, he emigrated to England and later to the USA. There, he studied physics and had a Ph.D., was involved in aerospace research, and finally founded a medical diagnostics company (http://www.enotes.com/company-histories/diagnostic-products-corporation). He had taken the recollection of the fate of the Bierhoff family before he was 70 years old and finally worked on the traumatic experience of his youth in the play "The Judgment of Herbert Bierhoff." The piece is a fictional portrayal, but it is likely that the events in the core are authentically reproduced (Murder Most Merciful.) [Edited by Michael Berenbaum, University Press of America, 2005 [Studies in the Holocaust, Volume XXVIII].

According to Sigi Ziering's description, Herbert Bierhoff was assigned to the Jewish police in the Riga ghetto. In this function, he was able to protect his wife and daughter for a long time. When he could no longer sustain this protection, Herbert Bierhoff poisoned his daughter Ellen to spare her further suffering and the deportation to an extermination camp. When this could happen, is unclear. Ziering places Herbert Bierhoff's desperate act in the autumn of 1943. The online memorial book of the Federal Archives names the death date for Ellen Bierhoff on April 22, 1944. Both figures could be correct: in the course of the dissolution of the Riga ghetto and the transfer of the inhabitants to the Riga concentration camp Kasierwald was swept through the Riga ghetto on November 2, 1943, during the day. All prisoners who did not work in commandos outside the ghetto were deported to Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. As a member of the Jewish ghetto police, Herbert Bierhoff might have known beforehand about this action and he must have been clear that he could not keep Ellen from being carried away. He could have killed his daughter at that time.

The death date of Ellen Bierhoff, mentioned in the commemorative book of the Federal Archives, might refer to a selection of children in the central camp of Riga-Kaiserwald and the numerous external commemorations on April 28, 1944. If Ruth and Herbert Bierhoff had been able to stay with Ellen up until then, the killing of the girl by the father in connection with this murder could be against the children from the concentration camp Riga-Kaiserwald.

According to Sigi Ziering's play, SS Herbert Bierhoff attacked Ellens's death in the courtyard, trying to dig a grave for his daughter with a spoon. Then he was shot on the orders of the camp Director.

This Memorial Book entry could be completed by the support of Fritz Ostkämper, Jacob-Pins-Gesellschaft, Höxter.

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