I interrupt this series on Yvonne Sommerfeld for just a moment…
Digging through the Swiss Archives online…. I have been a bit like a child in a candy shop. Stunned and gobsmacked… staring around me with wide-eyed wonder and glee.
I’ll have this one… and this one… oh, and this one too! Oh heck… I’ll take them ALLLLLL!!!”
Except, instead of a bloated tummy, I have a bloated hard-drive, laden with lengthy files that I am having a hard time processing. It will take a bit to digest all of it!
I have been searching the archives with a long list of names of folk that I have come across over the years. I have struck the jack-pot for several individuals and all of them have a common theme… the black market passport business run by Aryan lawyer Jürgen Ziebell in 1938 in Berlin. The same business that got Josef Jakobs sent to Sachsenhausen. I know many of the names off by heart and so did a search for several of the people involved… either as profiteers or as desperate clients.
One of the first names that I tried was Dorothea Schachtel who I knew had attempted to get into Switzerland with her forged Finnish passport. In my earlier blog post about her, I learned that she had managed to escape to the UK and then created a new life for herself in the United States. So it was a story with a happy ending and I figured it was a safe place to start. Dorothea is indeed mentioned in the files, and I’ll get around to her in due course, for there are some very fascinating documents in her file.
Another couple of folks that I searched for were Hans Wolpe and Josef Emil Roos both of whom were tangentially involved with the Berlin passport scheme. According to Josef Jakobs, in his interrogations by MI5, Wolpe and Roos had tried to arrange some Irish naturalizations with the help of Lincoln Allan Smith. On top of that Roos was connected with the infamous Albert Arthur Tester about whom I wrote a series of blogs a few years ago. It’s all a bit tangled, to say the least. And deep in one of my blogs on Roos is a short note that:
“In January 1936, Roos and Albrecht were arrested by the police in Brussels at the request of the Swiss authorities. Albrecht was found to have a false Swiss passport in his possession and both men had been committing fraud in Zurich.”
And… indeed… we have several dossiers about Roos in the Swiss Archives. I have only skimmed them at this point (there are many, many documents) but I came across one item which prompted this blog post… an actual photograph of Josef Emil Roos.
(J.E. Roos written on back of photograph)
Finding a photograph of any of these individuals is always a high point in my research. Somehow, a photograph makes the person more real, more substantial. I get a better sense of them as a character. Oftentimes, the reality does not match the image in my head! I had always pictured Roos as a rather wiry, weaselly looking character. Nope. Not in the slightest. He looks like a rather well-to-do, successful financier, and that is indeed the image he was trying to project, but in that case… the reality was also something very different. Roos’s life is littered with bankruptcies, deportations from multiple countries, fraud, insurance scams, swindles, passport forgery, etc, etc.
While Roos was not Jewish (he was actually Catholic), he did perish on 3 January 1944 in Mauthausen concentration camp. He had been there for less than a month after being imprisoned for his political views (he was anti-Hitler). A sad end for a complicated man.
I’ll be digging away at the files on Roos, most of them are in German, some in French, a few in Dutch and/or Flemish. It might take a while.
I cannot recall
how I first came across your writings,
and your subject is not over-close to my heart,
yet I find myself gripped by their stories –
or perhaps more accurately,
by your dedication and excitement!
I know the feeling!
/
My great-grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel William Bolitho, DSO,
director of a Cornish bank ( later Barclays ),
married Ethel Macleod of Cadboll from Invergordon Castle,
and for decades I have wondered
how on earth they met,
originating from opposite ends of the country.
The internet has finally revealed the probable answer!
/
Two country houses set just a mile apart
on the east bank of the River Dart in South Devon.
A cousin, Thomas Bedford Bolitho,
bought Greenways in 1882 –
later owned by Agatha Christie ( now National Trust ).
The various Barons Ashburton ( also bankers )
had property in South Devon plus Ross & Cromarty,
and one married a Macleod of Cadboll,
and one of the family rebuilt Sandridge Park,
just north of Greenways.
One of the Barons left a complex will,
and it eventually ended up to a Macleod daughter.
The dates tie up,
and I feel I have the answer
to a question that has exercised me for 40-plus years!
So I feel your exultation at your recent success!
All power to you!
Best wishes,
Zen
Hi Zen,
It’s so satisfying when you solve a mystery, of any size! I looked up your William Edward Thomas Bolitho. He fought in WWI too it looks like. And lost a son in the war too. Good luck in your quest!
Thank you, Giselle.
William was known as “W.E.T.”,
and he and I look very much alike.
One of a number of ancestors
that I would really like to have met.
I think we would have had a lot in common.
He died in 1919 aged only 56,
worn out commanding 2nd/1st Royal Devon Yeomanry.
It was a home defence / training battalion.
WET was wounded in the thigh during the Boer War,
and I am guessing the reason he did not fight
was that he was not fit enough for France,
although only 51 in 1914.
/
My great-grandmother was devastated by her losses,
and went on a sending spree,
with superb quality stained glass windows
in both Devon and Cornwall,
plus a commemorative stables and stable bungalow,
all in the finest Cornish granite,
to remember her eldest son, Torquil.
No expense spared!
/
Just discovered more Macleod ancestors.
One was known as “Old Trojan”,
Donald Macleod of Berneray,
famous for killing a dragoon at the Battle of Falkirk,
fighting for Bonnie Prince Charlie
when 54 years old.
Discovered as I write this,
that there is even an “Old Trojan” novel
( which is interesting,
as the “Richard Bolitho” series of novels
feature the name of one of our family,
whose yacht moored beside the author’s,
supplying him with a good name for his hero ).
/
And 2 of the Macleods were at the Battle of Worcester,
fighting for Charles I,
where one commanded the Macleod Regiment,
and ended up in the Tower of London,
but escaped,
though I have yet to find out how!
Both were knighted by Charles II
when he returned from exile.
/
500 Macleods went to fight at Worcester,
and they were nearly wiped out.
They certainly marched a long way!
/
Best wishes,
Zen
Fascinating! I’ve read some of the Richard Bolitho books, many years ago now. I was more a fan of the Ramage books!
Keep digging, you never know what small piece of information will unlock the door.