Max Nelki (1894 - 1986)

 Max Nelki, taken from his diary and my mother’s translation.

Max Nelki, was Wolf’s uncle. He was the son of his father’s brother Leopold and born on 3 October 1894 in the Strasse Rutschbahn 24 in Eimsbüttel, in Hamburg.

He went to the Matthias-Claudius preparatory school in Wandsbek up to year 8. He served in World War I and somehow met and married an English woman, Louise Jane, née Reynolds, from Hull in England. They had two children, Ingeborg and Alexander but then divorced and she got custody of the children.  Like his father and his brother Oswald, Max Nelki sold newspaper advertising space and described himself as a salesman. In Hamburg, around the 1930’s, he fell in love with a non-Jewish woman. The Nuremberg Race Laws (of September 1935) forbade and criminalized such relationships. 

When, despite the prohibition, Max Nelki spent the night at his girlfriend’s, he was probably denounced and at the end of 1935 summoned to the Gestapo office in the Hamburg City Hall. They were unable to prove anything and, after threatening him, let him go. However, he must have still been under surveillance because on 19 February 1936, when he along with other guests was celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday, he was arrested and charged with being a ‘Rassenschander’ (‘he who disgraces the German race’).

Max Nelki was sentenced on 10 June 1936 to 18 months in prison on the grounds of ‘racial defilement’. He spent the first part of his term in a solitary cell, then with several other inmates in a much too small cell. His fellow-prisoners were not criminals but also incarcerated Jews like himself. 

After the completion of his sentence, Max Nelki was not set free, but was taken directly to a police station and from there on 11 September 1937 transported to Dachau concentration camp. After changing into camp outfits, personal registration and ice-cold showers, they assembled outside and were addressed by Commandant Baranowski as follows:

‘You Jewish swines are here for your own protection: protection form the justified fury of the German people for your exploitation of them for years and years. You who never worked in your lives you will learn to work here. You will build Dachau up and you with your doctrates and degrees will work till you drop.’

And that is literally what they had to do: build barracks and enlarge Dachau for future prisoners. All the work had to be done at top speed, any slacking was punished. They had ot ram into the earth large stakes with the help of a three-legged ram block, weighing 5-6 cwt which they had to first pull up with an iron rope. Three men at a time worked on this and in the evening their hands were full of blisters and bleeding. Later on they had to pull big lorries in order to collect timber beams for the roof. In the winter, the ground was often frosty and icy, the beams were not fixed securely and often went sliding won injuring or killing people who were pulling the lorry. People were punished by being horsewhipped while tied to a trestle table or hanging freely from a hook with their hands tied together at the back, their arms taking the full weight. Here he got to know Hans Litten, today the highly regarded attorney and defence lawyer who had been taken into ‘protective custody’ on account of his resolute actions against the National Socialists during the night of the Reichstag Fire. Hans Litten took his own life on 5 February 1938 in Dachau. 

 In March 1938, the Austrian Jews were rounded up and taken to concentration camps. By this time, there were 36 barracks, some streets and pathways, built by the inmates, but with very primitive unsanitary conditions and insufficient drinking water.

 Max, with other ‘old’ inmates was transferred to Buchenwald later in 1938. Jews were kept separate form others but Max as a ‘Rassenschänder’ was put in a group with the ‘asocial people’. The day started at 3.00a.m and they were kept for hours standing to attention in all weathers or drilled in exercises that gave the guards sadistic pleasure. There was nothing to eat; speaking was forbidden. Hygiene was appalling and typhoid, blood poisoning and other diseases were common. They were unable to seek medical help and many died. The commandant was Herr Koch, the husband of Ilse Koch who made lampshades from the skin of prisoners.

Somehow he was released on 14 April 1939, but commanded by the Gestapo to leave Germany immediately. He promised to leave for Shanghai but needed 400 marks and 100 American dollars and did not have any money. A friend suggested he crossed illegally into Belgium. They went to Aachen and too ka tram to a small village from which to cross the border. His friend, a fair-haired dutchman, was allowed out of the tram but Max was stopped – it was illegal for Jews to use public transport. He was taken to the police and to court. The judge ordered he retrun to Hamburg. Now again he was told if he didn’t get the next boat form Genoa on 25 August he would be sent back to Dachau. His brother, Albrecht (seriously ill himself with TB) made intensive efforts with Hamburg officials to get a foreign travel permit to Shanghai and Alice (later murdered herself in Riga in December 1941) obtained the necessary foreign exchange from Jewish welfare organizations and friends. Outfitted with a few pieces of used clothing, Max left Germany on 22 August 1939.

He boarded the Conte Biancamano ship in Genoa and reached Shanghai on 12 September 1939. Shanghai was an important harbour city and had various international settlements. He was directed to the Japanese settlement in the north of the town. The 2 distinct Jewish communities – one Sephardic (mainly from Iraq) and the other Ashkenazi (mainly from Russia) had existed for many years but were now full of refugees. Max was given temporary accommodation in a ‘heim’ (hostel) with 100 beds in and three free meals a day. It was the only place that still accepted Jewish refugees.

 Many refugees were trying to get visas to the UK or USA and Max, as he spoke English, was able to earn a little from teaching English. He managed to rent a room. In 1940, Max like all emigrants, was denaturalized. On 15 July 1942, he married again – Margit. Their marriage certificate can be seen below.

The Japanese were fighting a war with the Chinese and by 1942 occupied every part of Shanghai. They were in an ‘uneasy alliance’ with Germany and were under pressure to conform to the German model of anti-semitism and establish a ghetto. The Hongkew ghetto, about one mile square, was established on 18th February 1943 and all ‘denationalised’ Jews from Germany and Austria had to move there. Any Chinese living there had to move out. They could rent properties there and Japanese guards together with a Jewish police force (Pao Chia) patrolled its borders. Food and electricity was rationed and people lived at a subsistence level. There were 11,000 refugees living there when the war ended.

Max stayed in Shanghai until 1952 and then returned to Hamburg after his marriage had ended. He had arranged by letter and had the agreement of his great cousin Ilse Kruse to marry her on his return. He died at the age of 92.