![UG: Family grave in Weißensee. "This is part of it where my grandmother’s name was engraved and there was room left, and I felt is was more than fitting that I should put down that my parents were ermordet [murdered] in Auschwitz. Ferdinand Brann who was 51 years old, Rosa Marie Brann who was 43 years old and Stefanie Klara Brann (Berger) because she got married on special permission a day before her deportation, and she was then 21 years old."](https://ajr.twoboysdev.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/770eee_14f0d84cde72408a9d5a7982821a7c13mv2-150x150.jpg)
Ursula Gilbert: With her aunt and uncle Lutz on holiday with Harry
Ursula Gilbert: Reading the rules for a good life written by her father in the prayer book he gave her when she left Berlin for the UK. "Gebetbuch der Israeliten Siebente Auflage Mit 10 Leitsätzen Deines Vaters. 1) Vergiss nie
Ursula Gilbert: Father Ferdinand Brann
Ursula Gilbert: Ferdinand Brann, father, WWI cavalry, 1914
Ursula Gilbert: Prayer book given to UG by her father the day she left Berlin for the UK on the Kindertransport, containing a long note her wrote her on ten rules for how to conduct yourself in life
Ursula Gilbert: Grandmother Hedwig Brann
Ursula Gilbert: Father Ferdinand Brann
Ursula Gilbert: January 2007
Ursula Gilbert: Detail from note written by her father in the prayer book he gave her
Ursula Gilbert: With Harry and their two sons
Ursula Gilbert: January 2007
Ursula Gilbert: Letter from parents
![UG: Family grave in Weißensee. "This is part of it where my grandmother’s name was engraved and there was room left, and I felt is was more than fitting that I should put down that my parents were ermordet [murdered] in Auschwitz. Ferdinand Brann who was 51 years old, Rosa Marie Brann who was 43 years old and Stefanie Klara Brann (Berger) because she got married on special permission a day before her deportation, and she was then 21 years old."](https://ajr.twoboysdev.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/770eee_14f0d84cde72408a9d5a7982821a7c13mv2.jpg)
Ursula Gilbert: Family grave in Weißensee. "This is part of it where my grandmother’s name was engraved and there was room left, and I felt is was more than fitting that I should put down that my parents were ermordet [murdered] in Auschwitz. Ferdinand Brann who was 51 years old, Rosa Marie Brann who was 43 years old and Stefanie Klara Brann (Berger) because she got married on special permission a day before her deportation, and she was then 21 years old."
Ursula Gilbert: Wedding to Harry Gilbert (Horst Giesner)
Ursula Gilbert: Family holiday with father
Ursula Gilbert: Reading from her parents' letter of May 1939: "Ich lese jetzt einen der vielen Briefe
Ursula Gilbert: Mother Rosa
Ursula Gilbert: Wedding to Harry Gilbert (Horst Giesner)
Ursula Gilbert: Soon after Kindertransport arrival
Ursula Gilbert: With older sister Stefanie Klara
Ursula Gilbert
Ursula Gilbert, nee Ursula Brann, was born 1923 in Berlin
Born: 1923
Place of Birth: Berlin
Arrived in Britain: 16/03/1939
Interview Number: 145 (S)
Experiences: Kindertransport , With Foster Family
Interview Summary
Ursula Gilbert, nee Ursula Brann, was born 1923 in Berlin. Her father was a banker until the Wall Street crash in 1929. He then opened a Russian delicatessen shop. Ursula went to the ‘Haushaltsschule Lenitz’, outside Berlin, to prepare for emigration. Father was involved in the Jewish community and helped to organise the Kindertransport. She left Berlin on a Kindertransport on the 15th of March 1939. She first stayed with a religious family in London and then lived in various hostels and Boarding houses. During the war, Ursula did various ‘war works’. Her parents and sister stayed in Berlin until 1943 and were deported to Auschwitz. Her parents were very close friends of the last president (1940-1943) of the Jewish community in Berlin, Moritz Henschel. Ursula married in 1949 and has two children. She is a member of Belsize Square Synagogue.
Place of Birth
Well the only way I can explain it perhaps you know…My happy family life was interrupted and I lost my parents and my sister. And I tried to work myself up to a sort of a useful and nice enough human being. I found my own family and I managed to study so I’ve got something I can say I can be proud of. I’m happy and I’ve got no regrets really. I mean all the things that happened to me in war time and being a refugee I can only make Mr Hitler responsible for it – nobody else. And that’s how it is and I had to come to terms with that. It’s no good saying I resent it in any way because that’s how it is.
VE Day... Everybody was so happy and so you know…That was the unhappiest days of my life perhaps because then I heard… Up till now I could hope and think you know perhaps one day I’ll see them [her parents and sister] again. If I haven’t heard by then, I won’t hear any more - That’s the end of it, the end of hoping.
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