Prayer Book

Accession Number: NEKHC:2016.34

Object: Prayer Book

Physical Description: Hardback book, blue fabric cover. Handwritten ink on inside cover. Pages have black printed ink. 

Information: This Prayer Book, in Hebrew and German, was donated by Ilse Buxbaum. Ilse was born in Germany and came to England to escape Nazi persecution of Jewish people in 1939. In Germany Ilse used to practice Judaism with her mother.

Further Information

This Prayer Book, in Hebrew and German, was donated by Ilse Buxbaum. Ilse was born in 1929 in Berlin, Germany, and she was an only child in a happy family home. Growing up, Ilse remembers that as a family they were not especially religious as her father did not partake actively in religious obligations, although Ilse used to go to Synagogue on Fridays and Saturdays with her mother. Together, Ilse and her mother observed Passover, and other Jewish holidays. The family faced increasing danger from the rise of Nazism and persecution of Jewish people. Ilse’s father was no longer able to work as before and the situation became increasingly threatening for both her parents and Ilse. To save their lives, the family decided to try to leave Germany. They succeeded in doing so but had to go separately. On 1st March 1939, Ilse was the first to depart from Berlin having been sent to England on the Kindertransport. On her arrival in England, Ilse lived with a foster family in London. Their home was close to their local Synagogue, which Ilse visited soon after her arrival so she could continue to practice. Ilse’s mother was also later able to leave for England and finally her father escaped to Shanghai, China, but they were never again able to reunite as a family of three.