Three Generations of Women Who Sought a Better Future Abroad

When my mother, Margarita “Carmen” Echtermeier, and my grandmother, Else Schwersenz, boarded the Lipari from the port of Hamburg on June 15, 1938, they were completely unaware that just a few months later, their escape from Nazi Germany and the subsequent Holocaust would have been near impossible.

My grandmother was from a Jewish family from Berlin, and she married a Chilean man who lived in Germany. During the First World War, they both moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in search of a better future. It was there that my mother was born in 1917.

From Copenhagen to Buenos Aires

The colorful houses that lined the river Nyhavn, the charming harbor, and the cobblestoned streets were not enough to ease my grandmother’s feelings of homesickness. And so after the First World War had ended, Else and her husband moved back to Berlin with my mother.

Back in Berlin, my grandmother separated from my grandfather and opened a dry cleaning and garment repair store. There, Else and Carmen lived together until 1938.

Before long, they both started to see that the situation for Jewish people in Germany was getting much worse under Hitler.

My mother, who was 19 years old at the time and working as a secretary and a seamstress for a well-known clothes designer, started to pressure my grandmother to seek safety abroad. She had a feeling that things would only get worse.

My grandmother resisted initially, crying every day at the thought of leaving her beloved Berlin and her elderly mother behind. But my mother took matters into her own hands. She went to the Chilean Embassy and managed to obtain Chilean passports for herself and my grandmother. After getting an entry visa for Argentina, they were almost ready to go.

But they had one pressing problem. Where would they get the money for their trip?

The Nazi government charged high taxes to Jews who wished to emigrate and forced many of them to leave their assets behind in Germany. The financial barriers they faced if they left made everything seem impossible, until my mother got in touch with HIAS (known as HICEM at that time). After a few weeks, during which time HIAS staff confirmed our family’s Jewish heritage and financial situation, they received two tickets to board the boat that would transport them to safety and freedom.

HIAS covered their transportation costs from Berlin to Hamburg, and put them up in a hotel where they waited to depart the following morning. HIAS also provided them with some money for the journey, so that they could pay for food and other necessities when the ship stopped in different ports.

A month and a half later, on July 20, 1938, Else and Carmen arrived in their new home, Buenos Aires. Though they did not know it then, they narrowly escaped Kristallnacht, more serious restrictions placed on the exit of Jews from Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust.

It was here in Buenos Aires that I was born in 1944. HIAS was their salvation — had it not been for them, my family would not be here today and would have likely been killed in Nazi Germany.

From Buenos Aires to Santiago

Today, I live a happy and fulfilling life in Santiago, Chile, where I moved after meeting my husband, Arie Baron. After arriving in Santiago, I began working in my husband’s family business, and I also wrote two books about my family history.

My mother also loved to write and was a bohemian soul — a free spirit inspired by her new life in the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. Later in her life, when she was much older, she moved to Chile to be closer to me and she brought her typewriter with her. After she got to Santiago, she immersed herself in writing, typing out page after page of her life story.

Now, I’m continuing her legacy. My two books, Un faro en las tinieblas (A Beacon in the Darkness) and Una travesía al pasado (A Journey Through Memories) are a testament to everything my mother and grandmother built, despite the difficulties they experienced. I write every single day, and writing brings me a sense of peace and satisfaction.

Thanks to HIAS, I’m able to write this story down. The words on the pages of the books I wrote can now be passed on to my children, my grandchildren and hopefully to my great grandchildren one day.