Ernest's mother and two brothers tried in vain to emigrate as well. Paul Neuschul died in late 1939 after an incident that some in the family believe was a botched chemical experiment and others a suicide. In his last letter to Ernest, Robert Neuschul describes trying to get his daughter Hanna on the Kindertransport, a vast program of British activists now attributed to only one man, Nicholas Winton. Robert managed to cross the border illegally into Poland and eventually made it to London, but was unable to bring his family.
In the picture below, you can see two artifacts of the time. Part of Robert Neuschul's last letter to Ernest, and a handwritten letter from Ernest Neuschul, in which he, as a former communist, comes to terms with the Soviet Union's alliance with Nazi Germany.
“Hilda has been to Rubešova Street (the headquarters of the British Refugee Committee, the organizer of the Kindertransport) several times and tried to find a place for Hanna in the children's project. But everything is already full, they are not accepting any new registrations. If you hear of a family or children's home that would be willing to take Hanna in, please write to us immediately.”
Hanna wrote a message of her own to Ernest's son, Petr: “Dear Petr! What are you doing all the time, are you well? Maybe I will be with you in London soon and we can play. I kiss and send many greetings to you, Ernest and Christel. Your Hanna.”
Portrait photographs capture the faces of those closest relatives who did not live to see the end of the war: Hanna Neuschul was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau together with her mother Hilda, née Mühlstein. Paul died before the deportations began, his wife Hilda, née Strnad, was murdered in the ghetto in Riga, Latvia. Jeanette, the mother of all three Neuschul brothers, was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Mimi Wotzil's parents Otto and Berta were murdered in the ghetto in Riga, Latvia.
Source of portrait photographs: National archive, Police directorate Praha II, 1931 – 1940, sign. N 837/27, kart. 9213, N 1020/1, kart. 7908, N 837/24, kart. 9213, digitized by the Terezín Initiative Institute as part of the Terezín Album project.