Gerson Family collection

Studio portrait of Berta Gerson. A resident of Berlin at the outbreak of the Second World War, Berta phoned her brother-in-law Theodor Kabaker on 3 December 1942 to inform him of her impending deportation from Berlin. One of her sisters visited her at her home and helped her pack her suitcase before she was deported to Auschwitz–Birkenau, entering the camp on 9 December 1942. The date of her death is not recorded, but her last words to Theodor were, “[I] have many thanks for all your love. Think of me fondly.” Berta's sisters, Selma and Herta also died in the Holocaust. Another sister, Adele, escaped Germany for employment at the Royal Cancer Hospital in London in 1939 before emigrating to Melbourne, Australia in March 1947. There, she was reunited with her brother Siegfried and his family, who had emigrated to Australia in 1939.