Fred & Rolph Flatau (MM / Germany, 1931), Holocaust survivors

Fred Flatau (M / Germany, 1931-2010), Holocaust survivor.

Rolph Flatau (M / Germany, 1931), Holocaust survivors.

• Twin brothers.

• KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <Italy> <Ferramonti> <Belluno> <Hidden Children> <Rome> / <Fort Ontario

Biography

Twins Fred & Rolph Flatau were born July 26, 1931 in Berlin, Germany, to Ernest Flatau and Anna Goldschmit, an affluent Jewish family. Their family was very assimilated and not religious. Their father was an entertainment lawyer who fought for Germany in World War I.

During Kristallnacht in November of 1938, the Nazis took their father to KZ Sachsenhausen. Their mother used bribery to get her husband released. Ordered to leave Germany, the family fled to Prague (Czechoslovakia), then Italy. They stayed in a luxurious hotel in Italy for five years. They were forced to wear black shirts but did not have problems with anti-Semitism.

However, when Hitler allied with Mussolini, their father was sent to Ferramonti for one year. Then the family moved around for years attempting to escape capture and persecution. When they made it to Rome they used their connections to get an apartment and changed their name to "Ferrucci." Fred became an altar boy and attended Mass.

On June 3, 1944, President Roosevelt announced that 1,000 Jewish refugees were able to enter the United States. Fred's family was one of those 1,000. Fred & Rolph were thirteen years old when they sailed to America and made their way to Oswego, New York. From there they moved to New York City. Fred eventually moved back to Germany and completed his medical education at a prestigious university.

USHMM

Fred and Rolf Flatau were born on July 26, 1931. The identical twins were the children of Ernest Flatau. From 1936 to 1938, the boys attended the American school in Berlin so that they could learn English in preparation for the family's planned immigration to the United States. In 1939 the family shipped their furniture to America, but they were unable to leave and ended up going to Czechoslovakia instead. From Czechoslovakia they went to Italy and spent the war years there. After the German occupation of Italy in 1943, the family lived under false papers, and Fred attended the Catholic San Leone Magno Fratelli Maristi school. After the United States liberated Rome, the Flatau family joined a transport of 1000 refugees brought to Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York.

The Flatau collection consists of materials related to the wartime experiences of the Flatau family, who escaped from Germany to Italy in 1940 living first in the Ferramonte camp and then in Rome, Italy. In 1944, they came to the United States as part of a refugee group living at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York. Includes a 1941 certificate of good citizenship, baptismal certificates and identity cards for Dr. Ernest Flatau and Anna Maria (Anny) Goldschmidt, a photo of Ernest and Anna with their two sons, Fred and Rolf, 13 tourist photographic postcards of the Collegio S. Leone Magno in Rome, and Alfred Flatau's 1947 Boy Scout identity card in New York.

Obituary (Fred Platau): New York Times (18 Jan 2010)

2010 --Fred N., MD, 78 on January 8, of Naples FL from cancer. Formerly of New York City, Queens, Roslyn, and Rye Brook. Born Berlin 1931; Holocaust survivor. Graduated CCNY, MD from University of Heidelberg. Internist Flushing, NY. Past President Queens County Medical Society, Flushing Hospital Med Staff Society and 1st District Branch, New York State Medical Society. Leaves devoted wife Nancy Green of 47 years, daughter Karen -David Druckman, grandchildren Julia, Mathew and son Warren. Predeceased by parents Anny and Ernst, brothers Jerry and Steve. Devotee of medical, political and social justice causes. Humor, optimism, generosity and compassion were his hallmarks. In retirement was a volunteer physician and docent at Holocaust Museum of Southwest Florida

Bibliography

Fred and Rolph are among the children interviewed at Fort Ontario "Investigation of Problems Presented by Refugees at Fort Ontario Refugee Center"