Rosel (or Rosa, 1914-2008) was born in Budapest and probably came to Leipzig with her parents. Her father Ludwig was a tailor and owned a men’s fashion store in the city center at 10 Hallisches Tor. The young woman fled to the Netherlands in 1939 and survived persecution there. Both women worked at the same clothing shop in Leipzig, at Woolworth on Petersstraße which was led by the Jewish Ury family.
Lena Krell (1911-1990) attended the Carlebach School from 1917 to 1927. Her mother Feigel passed away in 1926. Lena first worked at her father’s textile shop “Zum kleinen Kaufhaus” at Gerberstraße 7, where the family also lived. In summer 1933, she had to give up her job there due to antisemitic repression against the owners and Jewish employees. Her father was deported to Poland in1938 and presumably murdered during the German occupation.
In 1933, Lena Krell emigrated to Paris, where she married the photographer Eugen Leon Mittelmann. Without working permits, they made a living doing small odd jobs. After the German occupation, they had to go into hiding in southern France until the liberation in 1944. Their daughters were born during that time.
