Final family portrait

Studio photograph of Alice Peglau (nee Pfeiffer) and her sons Heinz (born 1920) and Rolf (born 1921), taken in 1925. Alice, her husband Leonhard Peglau and their family lived in Berlin. Leonhard was murdered sometime from 1933, possibly in Dachau, although the details are unclear. After the loss of her husband, Alice worked as a governess and housekeeper to support her family.

In February 1939, Heinz moved to Amsterdam and lived for a time with his uncle Egon Pfeiffer. There, Heinz met his fiancée Edith. Both ardent Zionists, they were undergoing agricultural training in Holland for two years before they could be eligible to go to Palestine.

Alice escaped to England in June 1939, forced to leave her youngest son Rolf behind to navigate the precarious life of a Jew in Nazi Germany. Rolf was assigned to work constructing and repairing railways, while he awaited various emigration applications.

Alice's letters to her sons convey her overwhelming anxiety for their wellbeing and her efforts to provide advice and parent from afar. She sent them money and wrote to friends and family in Berlin and Amsterdam, urging them to look after her boys. In 1941 all communication with Rolf ceased. Towards the end of that year he resided in Ahrensdorf, a Hachschara training camp located in Luckenwalde, not far from Berlin. He was deported from there on 18 October 1941 and transported to the Lodz ghetto. He was deported again in 1942 to a concentration camp, most likely Chelmno, where he was murdered. Heinz and Edith were deported to Vught on 10 April 1943, and thereafter to Westerbork. On 31 August 1943 they were sent to Auschwitz where they were murdered.

Alice only received absolute confirmation of Heinz' death in 1947.