Lotte & Käte Wundermacher

The two sisters Lotte (*1903 in Berlin) and Käte Wundermacher (*1907 in Remscheid) were daughters of Theodor Wundermacher (* ca. 1870 in Danzig, d. 1928 in Berlin) and Meta Martha Wundermacher née Blum (*1882 in Deutsch-Eylau, murdered in the Kulmhof concentration camp in 1942). They had two brothers: Fritz Wundermacher (*1903 in Berlin) and Hans Wilhelm Wundermacher (*1905 in Berlin).

Lotte Margarete Wundermacher worked as a private secretary at Hahnsche Werke A.G. for about 15 years until she was dismissed for anti-Semitic reasons. In 1941 she was deported to the Litzmannstadt ghetto and from there to the Kulmhof concentration camp, where she was murdered in 1942. As far as is known, she was not married and had no children.

Käte Marie Wundermacher was a nurse. She was able to escape to England in 1938, and thus survived the Holocaust. She changed her name to Kate Wondermaker and married Harvey Orensten (*1888) in London in January 1956, who passed away in the summer of the same year. Kate Orensten lived in London until her death in 1970. As far as is known, she had no children.

Fritz Wundermacher was a clerk in Berlin. He was married to Käthe Duschinski and had at least two children with her. In 1943 he was arrested in Berlin and deported to Auschwitz. He survived the concentration camp and returned to Berlin in 1945, where he lived until his death in 1980. Hans Wundermacher changed his surname to Wend in 1927 and was able to escape to South America in 1938. He lived in Montevideo, Uruguay, until at least 1957.

The marks of provenance and objects connected to Lotte and Käte Wundermacher are listed here and here in the co-operative provenance database Looted Cultural Assets.

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