What we know:
Birth Name: Rosenberg
First Name: Elly
Date/Place of Birth: 1913/Themar, Thüringen
Date/Place of Death: 01 May 2001
Elly was the youngest child of Else and Markus Rosenberg. After growing up and attending school in Themar (say from 1913 until 1928), she left Themar and it seems clear that she went to nearby Meiningen to work through the 1930s. It’s probable that she met her future husband, Bernhard Eisemann, while working in Meiningen.
Bernhard made plans to leave Germany in the first years after the Nazi Regime took over. He left for the United States in late summer 1936. Elly probably made plans at the same time to leave but she received her final papers only on 5 May 1939. On 14 July 1939, she left Bremen on the ship Bremen.
On 21 July 1939, Elly arrived in New York. Her sponsor was her father’s younger sister, Ida; as the entry in the ship’s manifest makes clear, the records were corrected to ensure that „Aunt“ was recorded for posterity. Ida and her husband, Moritz Dahlerbruch had immigrated into the States in September 1936 and were living in the Bronx when Elly arrived.
Bernhard and Elly married soon after her arrival and they turned their attention to bringing the other members of Elly’s family to the United States. The file of documents compiled by Julius Rosenberg in his desperate search to emigrate includes the many letters, affidavits, and documents submitted by Elly and Bernhard to support Julius, Else, and Lotte.
Elly did not see her brother or parents again; after the war, she found her sister-in-law and niece and they remained in close contact for the rest of her life. Bernhard died in 1978; Elly continued to live in Delaware, Pennsylvania until her death in 2001.
Her niece Lotte treasured the photographs and letters of her family among which is this poignant page in a photo album of Elly’s: „My Beloved Family.“