Walter Abraham worked for the Berlin furniture company Fechner & Preidel. Shortly after the 1938 November pogrom, the business was forcibly sold. In 1939, Walter Abraham married Ruth Fromm. He performed forced labor from 1940 on.
After Ruth Abraham’s parents were deported in the summer of 1942, the couple decided not to let it happen to them. They waited until their daughter Reha was born on January 19, 1943, and then went underground. To begin with, they hid in a simple cabin in Küstrin (now Kostrzyn nad Odrą in Poland). After a few months, a police patrol came to check their papers. The forged identity documents they had received from their helper Maria Nickel saved their lives, giving them a headstart. The family fled before the inspection was over. After that, they had to separate. Walter Abraham spent some time staying with the Berlin greengrocer Bodo Goede and his wife Reinholde.
After his liberation, Walter Abraham was held in a Soviet camp. The Abrahams returned to Berlin together on his release. In 1947 they settled in New York City.
Walter Abraham and Ruth Fromm with Walter’s parents Julius and Elsa Abraham, Mannheim, November 1938. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
The Abraham family after their liberation, Berlin, around 1946. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
