Searching the Archives

Last update: January 14, 2022
Previous update: November 16, 2021

In summer 2021 I spend several months in the Federal Archives of Switzerland and searched also other archives, triggered by my findings.

As a result I started to write various texts which I will post here the moment I think they can be shown to outsiders.

Posted texts

  1. My Search is a text reporting about my findings in the Swiss Federal Archive.
  2. Gabriel Makowsky is a text sketching the life and death of Gabi Makowsky, my mother's second husband, who gave me his name and some Jewish education.
  3. D-report is a text summarizing what I found in the Duncan archive: David Douglas Duncan: An Inventory of His Papers and Photographs at the Harry Ransom Center
    The text is still to be completed.

Hermine Schanelcova (1920-1952)

Hermine Schanelcova is a young woman whose life and death is strangely intertwined with Gabi Makowsky. I am still writing about her.
Here is link documenting what the Federal Archive has about her.

Helene Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 1924-1962

Duchess Helene was an intimate friend of Gabi Makowski between 1946-1948 (or later). In this time she moved in leftist and communist circles, as confirmed by Theo Pinkus, a leading communist of Switzerland with whom I was friendly. In the Federal Archive she is suspected to be, together with Gabi Makowsky, an agent of the NKVD. It turns out (also from the material in the Archive) that her own father spread this rumour in order to frighten her away from her contacts with the leftist circles. He was fearing for the reputation of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. I countacted, without success, the spokesman of House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz by email. No answer. They prefer not to remember this period of her life.
Here is link to her entry on the site of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.