Out of Stuttgart: My Mother's Journey

A Pivotal Moment

On April 1, 1933 my mother, Lisa Sofie Einstein stood on the running board of her father’s car in front of the family home and her father’s office on Friederichstrasse, Stuttgart and took a picture of the “JUDE” sticker plastered on her father, Dr. Einstein’s, nameplate. That day, the first of April 1933, showed some evidence of her personality, as a driven, passionate young woman with a determination that wouldn’t stop. Someone who was moved by what she saw happening around her in a changing Germany.

Many years passed before I discovered the photo. Once I did, I knew the day my mother took that photograph was a pivotal moment in her life. Inheriting the collection of my mother’s photo albums, each dated with captions – names and places, in the album dated, 1929-1933, I discovered a tiny photograph, 2 x 3 inches, almost hidden on the center page. Shocked when I saw it, I wondered why my mother placed it there? But soon I understood that what my mother witnessed on April 1, 1933 was something that she didn’t want to remember and had to put out of her mind to move on with her life.

That April 1st was the beginning of decisions my mother made which affected her entire life. As a pre-med student at Frankfurt University, her intention to become a pediatrician, following in her father footsteps, was out of the question. On April 1st students in SA (Sturmabteilung) Nazi Party paramilitary uniforms occupied the university buildings at Frankfurt, denying Jewish students’ entry. There was no room for Jewish students. She decided it was time to leave Germany. She needed to study for a profession, so decided to become a nurse. England was her choice for training. Albert Einstein wrote an excellent letter of recommendation for her to present to teaching hospitals in London.

The photograph my mother took on April 1, 1933.

My mother, Lisa Einstein, before leaving Stuttgart, 1933.

Anti-Jewish Sign in Bavaria reads ‘Jews are not wanted here‘. Photograph taken by American photographer Julien Bryan in 1937. Similar signs were posted in parks and other public places in central and southern Germany. On my mother’s last visit to Stuttgart In the same year, in her journal she described a sign she saw in Stuttgart’s Schlossgarten that read: ’No Negroes, dogs, or Jews Allowed’.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Julien Bryan Archive. Collections : 2003.214

Lisa’s Jewish Identity

Despite not growing up in an observant Jewish family, witnessing life for the Jews in Germany increased the importance of her own Jewish identity. She began studying Hebrew, her dream was to one day live in a homeland for the Jews. A fortuitous moment was her introduction to the London Jewish Hospital (LJH) in London’s East End. With no previous knowledge of the existence of the hospital, she enthusiastically accepted and trained as a Queen’s Nurse and midwife.

During the 1930s, each member of my mother’s family, the Einsteins of Stuttgart, faced their individual decisions about remaining in Germany. Albert Einstein encouraged his cousins, my grandparents, Dr. Otto and Jenny Einstein to leave. Each family member made their own decision about whether they should stay or go, and how long they would hold on to their hometown.

Meeting Dr. Ben Samuel

Nurse Lisa Sofie Einstein met Dr. Ben Samuel, a young doctor from Wales on duty at the London Jewish Hospital on a temporary assignment for an emergency case. They had an immediate attraction. During those hectic pre-war years after he returned to his practice in Wales, they kept in touch with only a few in-person meetings. Seven years later, after their initial meeting, they arranged to meet at Pen y Fan, the highest mountain peak in South Wales. It was at that spot on the mountaintop that he said, “Don’t you understand, we are the ideal complement.” What followed was a marriage and an extraordinary life together, each drawn to each other’s unique family backgrounds—the Samuels, an observant Jewish family from the Pale of Settlement (Ukraine) and the Einsteins, from an established secular Jewish family from southwest Germany.

Two Families

Out of Stuttgart: My Mother’s Journey follows the lives of two families—revealing the decisions they made to carry on their lives for their own survival. Most of all, it was my mother’s passion and determination for the life she wanted that inspired me to unfold the story of her life.