At the age of around 20, Selma Mandel moved from Vienna to Berlin to live with her uncle, the consul Guttmann. She was initially employed as a private tutor in various families, but also performed office work for various companies.
In 1923 she married the non-Jewish senior civil servant Max Seifert. Their marriage was later classified as a “privileged mixed marriage.” After her husband’s death in February 1942, her persecution began. She was denounced for initially leaving her home without wearing a yellow star to mark her out as Jewish.
When the 71-year-old returned home one day in March 1942, she found her front door sealed. Only by coincidence had she evaded her deportation. She fled to acquaintances and stayed “illegally” in Rehfelde outside Berlin. She did not name her helpers in the report she wrote after the war.
After her liberation, she learned that her house in Berlin-Steglitz had been destroyed by bombs and all her relatives had died or been murdered.
