Ellen Rawson family photograph

A photograph that belonged to Holocaust survivor Ellen Rawson. It shows a woman cooking in a kitchen with the windows open, presumably in spring or summertime, offering a glimpse into everyday life before the Holocaust. Cooking and sharing meals, a central activity of any household, brought families together and was often a lasting memory for Jewish people as life became increasingly difficult under the Nazi regime. These are from a collection of hundreds of photographs of Ellen’s family life before the Holocaust that she donated to the museum.

Ellen Rawson was born Ellen Herrman in Königsberg, East Prussia in 1922. The family lived there happily during Ellen’s early childhood. They kept many of the Jewish holidays, and religion was an important part of family life. As the family were Jewish, their business and home were taken from them during the Holocaust. Ellen survived because she escaped persecution on the Kindertransport to England, but her parents and younger brother were murdered in the Holocaust.