The Else Mendel Archive

The archive is divided into three groups: letters, personal documents and copies. The letters include Mendel’s correspondence with her family expressing fear and concern about their deported family members. Else Mendel (1909-1998) was born into a Jewish family in Newry, Ireland. The family moved to Norway in 1911. As Norwegian citizens, Mendel’s two younger siblings were deported on the 26th November 1942 and killed in Auschwitz. As British citizens, Mendel, her sister and her parents managed to escape arrest, and they left for neutral Sweden during the winter 1942-1943. Mendel worked later at the Norwegian consulate in Glasgow.