WWU’s Sandra Alfers revives the legacy of poet, journalist and Holocaust survivor Else Dormitzer
In Traces of Memory: The Life and Work of Else Dormitzer (1877-1958), Sandra Alfers, WWU Professor of German, brings to life the story of a remarkable journalist, poet, and Holocaust survivor.
Alfers paints a vivid portrait of Dormitzer’s life, reconstructing her experiences from the upheavals of early 20th-century Europe—from her life in Nuremberg and her escape to the Netherlands to her internment in the Theresienstadt ghetto, and, ultimately, her survival of the Holocaust and immigration to post-war London.
Through Alfers' meticulous research and Cornelius Partsch’s superb translation, Dormitzer's works are now accessible to an English-speaking audience for the first time. More than just a record of her experiences, Dormitzer’s poetry adds a layer of emotional depth with its compressed intensity and ability to capture the extremes of the everyday in captivity in ways that other writing could not. It is through her poetry that we witness a more visceral account of life in the face of annihilation—one that negotiates between the traumatic realities of daily survival and poetic witnessing.
Alfers recounts, “Her poetry is very accessible; it is very visual. I remember that the texts stayed with me after I first found them in the archives; they prompted me to learn more about the woman who wrote them, eventually leading me to uncover her life story.”
Pictured above: The poem "Transport" is the one Alfers uses most often when teaching camp poetry in her German classes. Its relatability and accessibility, despite its complexity and the difficulty of its topic, makes it one of Alfers’s most resonant pieces to cover. Central to the poem, the Theresienstadt ghetto was nothing but a waystation to the killing centers in the East, including Treblinka and Auschwitz. The SS ordered these transports at unexpected intervals in the ghetto, creating upheaval, uncertainty, and fear. People did not know what was going to happen next; family and friends were often separated. This poem vividly captures the anxiety before the journey into the unknown. Rhythmic and visual descriptions maximize expression within short verses. Each stanza is a snapshot of a particular moment, and together they offer a window into the world of Theresienstadt when such transports were announced and executed.
Cornelius Partsch, Professor of German in WWU's Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, translated Dormitzer's writings from German into English for this publication. He characterizes translation as an “act of interpreting, mediating, transforming, and re-creating a text.” His translations aim to render the poems' gaps and ambiguities while also bringing into view the context and the complexity of the catastrophic, dehumanizing, and ever-changing situation in which Dormitzer found herself during her time in Theresienstadt.
Pictured above: Nuremberg, Dormitzer’s hometown, is primarily remembered today for its role during the Third Reich – for the infamous Nazi party rallies, for example, or the post-war International Military Tribunal, also known as the Nuremberg Trials. In recent years, the city has developed an interest in Dormitzer and her work countering antisemitism in the 1920s and has included information on her life and accomplishments in walking tours, publications, and exhibitions such as this one about Jewish life in Nuremberg.
Dormitzer’s story is one of resilience, but also of the fragility of European Jewry in the face of rising antisemitism and fascism. Her contributions as a journalist, writer, and activist placed her at the heart of German-Jewish intellectual and religious life between the wars, before the rise of National Socialism shattered these communities. Alfers pieces together this life through Dormitzer’s publications and the family’s rich personal archive she discovered in the course of her research.
“I was fortunate to connect with surviving family members in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, and they generously opened their homes to me to let me work with a range of materials. They had collected a large number of personal records in Dutch, German, and English, from letters and postcards to deportation notices and diaries that allowed me to put the pieces of her life together,” explains Alfers.
She also shines a light on the often-overlooked voices of Jewish women before and during the Holocaust and even since then. Dormitzer’s survival and creativity challenge scholarly narratives that have historically downplayed the intellectual and artistic roles played by women in times of crisis.
By including Dormitzer in the canon of Holocaust literature, Alfers contributes to a broader understanding of writing as resistance not only through physical survival but through intellectual and artistic endurance. Lynn L. Wolff, a literary scholar at Michigan State University, notes that Alfers’ focus on “the activities and achievements of German-Jewish women before, during, and after the Holocaust” is especially significant as it brings voices like Dormitzer's to the forefront of the academic community.
Traces of Memory is not only a historical biography but also a deeply personal engagement between Alfers and Dormitzer, whose voices intertwine across time. Alfers’ work brings Dormitzer’s voice into the present, showing how the lessons of the past are still relevant in today’s world. Dormitzer’s poetry and testimony convey the importance of capturing the essence of the human experience—whether in the small details of daily life or the larger truths about survival and resistance, and Alfers ensures that it reaches a new generation of readers.
"It is great to see the impact of this research – not something one usually expects originating from a book of poetry! But I am glad that her life and work are finally being recognized by her hometown and that her story is now being shared through permanent exhibitions, publications, and memorials in Nuremberg,” Alfers adds.
As the world navigates its own turbulent period, Traces of Memory offers a powerful reminder of how one voice can make a difference. Dormitzer’s work speaks across generations, and Alfers’ scholarship helps revive her message for a world grappling with many of the same fundamental questions that Dormitzer’s did—about identity, survival, and the role of art in confronting inhumanity.
Stolpersteine recently installed in front of the Dormitzer's former house in Nuremberg. A Stolperstein is a ten-centimeter concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Its literal translation is 'stumbling stone' or metaphorically 'stumbling block', in that these are intended for the casual pedestrian to “stumble” across these poignant memorials. (Photo courtesy of Nigel Rogers)
Else Dormitzer's grandson, George Rogers (née Albert Rosenfelder) and Alfers in his home in the UK. George was born in 1925 to one of Else's two daughters (Elisabeth Dormitzer, married Rosenfelder). His family escaped Germany for the UK in 1938 when he was fifteen; he later fought for the British Armed Forces in Germany where he, among other things, worked as a translator. (Photo courtesy of Nigel Rogers)