Lotte Zelinka, née Holländer lived and worked in Bad Kissingen for only few months.

She was born in Berlin on October 25, 1914 as the first of two daughters of Ernst Holländer from Samter in Posen/ Poznan and his wife Margot who was born in Breslau/ Wroclaw.

Little is known about her life. In April 1938, she went to Bad Kissingen for few months and worked as a maid with the Apolants in Menzelstrasse. It’s most probable that the 23-year-old woman was not unknown to them as Lotte’s father Ernst Holländer came from Samter/ Posen where the Apolants also came from. Their main residence was in Berlin-Wilmersdorf where Lotte Holländer lived with her parents.

At the end of September 1938, Lotte already returned to Berlin. The further fate of the family is not documented clearly and only patchily. Lotte Holländer seems to have emigrated to Shanghai just in time. In November 1942, she married Rudolf (Rudy) Zelinka there who had been born in Bregenz. According to the database “Wikitree”, her father Ernst is also supposed to have gone to Shanghai, but already died there in 1942. Lotte’s mother obviously survived the Nazi Era. She died in Watertown, Massachusetts in December 1989 at the age of 98.

In November 1947, Lotte Zelinka managed to immigrate to San Francisco together with her husband and her only 4-year-old daughter Grace. The younger daughter Shirley was born in the USA. Among other places, Lotte Zelinka lived in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Florida and died in Yarmouth Port/ MA in February 2008 at the age of 93. Her husband had already died in New Britain, Hartford, Connecticut in 1982.

Lotte’s younger sister Ellen also survived. She fled to Shanghai like her sister and travelled to San Francisco in July 1947. She died in Hanover/ Grafton/ New Hampshire in Massachusetts in April 2007.