Gerson Family collection

Portrait of Selma Gerson wearing a white beaded necklace. Selma Gerson was employed by the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (the Reich Association of Jews in Germany), an organisation established to support Jewish schools, hospitals and welfare within Germany, which promoted the emigration of Jews from Germany. On 20 June 1942, Selma arrived a few minutes late for work; the Gestapo were waiting. Selma’s brother-in-law, Theodor Kabaker, recounted that those who were late “had to go to the courtyard and were then immediately written up for transport”. The Gerson family gathered together and brought Selma “a thermos, enamel plate, and enamel cup and some foodstuffs”. At this last meeting, Theodor described Selma as, “quite composed.” Selma was sent to a collection camp in central Berlin and then transported across Eastern Europe to Belarus. She arrived at Maly Trostenets extermination camp near Minsk on 24 June 1942. Selma’s fate is not known, however she was probably executed shortly afterwards. In 1946, Theodor wrote, “No news of Selma ever reached us.” Selma's sisters, Berta 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.