Martin and Ursula Eisenstein Collection

In 1936, Martin Eisenstein, age 26, from Stettin, Germany and his girlfriend, Ursula (Ursel) Fels, age 23, from Berlin escaped Nazi Germany to Johannesburg, South Africa, where they married and ultimately had three children. Martin's parents, Max and Herta, were eventually successful in also leaving Stettin for South Africa. Ursula’s father (divorced from her mother) had already left in 1933 for the United States with his son Klaus. Her mother Eva was murdered in Auschwitz at age 50 in 1942.

Martin started as an unpaid partner in a small carpentry business (for which he had prepared in Stettin by becoming a carpenter), but eventually worked in gold mines for the mining company JCI (Johannesburg Consolidated Investment),moving up from mine sampler to an executive position at head office. - Ursel worked as a window dresser (decorator), having had commercial art training in Berlin and Stettin.