Ilse S. only stayed for a short time in June 1939 at the Home of the Jewish Women’s Association. Her family was on the brink of emigration, and she probably had nowhere else to stay.

Ilse S. came from a wealthy family. She lived with her parents, Emanuel and Melanie S., and her three years younger brother, Arthur in the Frankfurt Westend. From 1926 to 1930, Ilse attended the Varrentrapp Elementary School followed by the Victoria High School. As a Jew in 1933, she had to leave this school because of persistent harassment as she later reported in the context of the compensation proceedings. She turned to philanthropy after she received her secondary education certificate in 1937. She could not prepare for the University entrance exams because high schools no longer accepted her. According to her statement, Ilse wanted to become a veterinarian.

The S. family immigrated in the early summer of 1939 from England to the USA. By the end of February, she had made the request for the transportation of her relocation goods. However, the procedure dragged on because the Nazi authorities were very meticulous in the investigation, with the aim of robbing the family financially. The assets were "secured,” that is, transferred to an account that the S. couple had no access to and seized by the state with their departure. Also, Emanuel S. had to pay a high "Dego levy."

In addition to items of everyday need, the family relocation list also included a photographic equipment as Arthur S. had completed a photography apprenticeship and wanted to become a self-employed photographer in the USA. The list of objects that the family S. was allowed to take was however not only shortened to the most valuable objects but cynically also the entire photographic equipment with which Arthur S. wanted to build a new life abroad.

Sources: Stadtarchiv Neu-Isenburg; Hessian State Archives