I received an email in early August 2020 from a gentleman living in Norway, the son-in-law of Karl Victor Hagen (son of Louis Georg Hagen). He had read my blogs on the pre-war black market passport business in Berlin and had a bit of information which he thought might be helpful. For those who wish […]
Black market passport business – Richard Eduard Wiener Read More »
A year ago, I published a series of blogs about Josef Jakobs’ involvement with a blackmarket passport scheme in Berlin. The scheme was orchestrated by a German lawyer, Jürgen Ziebell, and involved selling fake passports to Jews desperate to escape Nazi Germany. Many of the fake passports were from Finland and supplied by Finnish bootlegger
German Swindler Josef Emil Roos Read More »
A few months ago, I wrote a follow-up post about Eric Vincent Ewart White, the defence attorney for Josef Jakobs at his 1941 court martial. I had tracked down the names of three of Eric’s grandchildren and reached out to one of them. And… success! Rowan Ewart-White kindly sent me a photograph of his grandfather
Eric Vincent Ewart White – the Barrister-at-Law who defended a German Spy Read More »
During his court-martial, Josef told the court that he had direct Jewish ancestors. This was quite a revelation, as he had earlier told military interrogators that he was not Jewish. His court martial testimony, that his own grandfather was Jewish, seems like a desperate bid to gain the sympathy of the court. My own genealogical
The Jewish In-laws of Josef Jakobs – Gustav Goldemann Read More »
During his court-martial, Josef told the court that he had direct Jewish ancestors. This was quite a revelation, as he had earlier told military interrogators that he was not Jewish. His court martial testimony, that his own grandfather was Jewish, seems like a desperate bid to gain the sympathy of the court. My own genealogical
The Jewish In-Laws of Josef Jakobs – Abraham Wolfgang Elkan Read More »
My father, Raymond Jakobs, was the son of Josef Jakobs. Born in the early 1930s, my father didn’t really know his own father at all. Josef was either travelling or locked up in Swiss prisons or German concentration camps. My father was only 8 years old when Josef departed on his mission to England. Twenty
Gert Drucker – The Jewish Boy who Escaped the Nazis Read More »
I’ve been doing some follow-up work on some the individuals involved in the black market passport racket run by Jürgen Ziebell in 1938 in Berlin. I had come across a possible result on the MyHeritage site and signed up for a free two week subscription. One of the resources mentioned was the 1939 German Minority
A Useful Resource – the 1939 German Minority Census Read More »
I had an email the other day from a gentleman in Norway, the son-in-law of Karl Victor Hagen! Those who read this blog regularly, may remember I did a series of blogs about Josef’s involvement with a black market passport business in Berlin in 1938. One of the individuals who purchased a Finnish passport from
Follow-up to the story of Louis Georg Hagen Read More »
A few weeks ago, I received an email from Mike Guilfoyle, Vice-Chair of the Friends of Bockley & Ladywell cemeteries. I’m always amazed at how many diverse people find my blog and reach out. Mike was researching historically interesting deceased individuals with links to Lewisham (just southeast of London) and came upon my website and
The German Spy and the Lewisham Barrister Read More »
In the first three instalments of this blog series, I looked at the life of Arthur Albert Tester, swindler and conman extraordinaire. (Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here, Part 3 is here) In today’s post, I’m going to sweep up the stories of what became of his two wives and six children. Interestingly,
The Mysterious “Dr.” Arthur Albert Tester – Part 4 Read More »