Relationship to the author is shown in brackets
ERNST LIEDTKE, 1875–1933 (maternal grandfather): born Christburg, then in West Prussia. Lawyer; husband of Emmy; father of Ilse, Ursel, and Marianne. Converted from Judaism to Protestantism. Died in Berlin after being expelled from his profession in April 1933 under the Nazi ban on non-Aryan lawyers.
EMMY LIEDTKE, 1890–1965 (maternal grandmother): born Emmy Fahsel; wife of Ernst and mother of Ilse, Ursel, and Marianne. Lived in Germany all her life. Converted to Catholicism.
THEODOR LIEDTKE, 1885–1943 (maternal great-uncle): brother of Ernst Liedtke; uncle of Ilse, Ursel, and Marianne; salesman at Tietz department store in Berlin; deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1942, and from there to Auschwitz.
HELMUT FAHSEL, 1891–1983 (maternal great-uncle): Catholic priest and philosopher. Left Germany in 1934 for Switzerland on a tip-off from Franz von Papen, Hitler’s deputy chancellor. Apart from a brief spell in Germany after the war, spent the rest of his life in Switzerland.
ILSE LIEDTKE, 1910–1986 (older maternal aunt): photographer who spent the war in Berlin. Lover of Harald Böhmelt, composer and Nazi Party member. Except for a few years in Kiel from 1948, she lived in Berlin all her life. Converted to Catholicism.
URSULA (URSEL), COUNTESS VON PLETTENBERG, 1912–1995 (younger maternal aunt): born Ursula Liedtke. Actor who became a Catholic; secured ‘Aryan’ status in 1941 with the help of Hans Hinkel, a senior official in Hitler’s regime; married Franziskus, Count von Plettenberg in 1943; fled to the Netherlands in 1944; returned to Germany soon after the war and lived there for the rest of her life.
MARIANNE MAY, 1914–2013 (mother): born Marianne Liedtke. Violinist, stage name Maria Lidka; emigrated to London in 1934; married Walter May in 1955. Converted to Catholicism.
FRANZISKUS, COUNT VON PLETTENBERG, 1914–1968 (maternal uncle by marriage): married Ursel in 1943; deserted the German army in the Netherlands in 1944 and went into hiding with Ursel.
WALTER MAY, 1905–1963 (father): born in Cologne. A banker and then a brush manufacturer; emigrated to London in 1937. His first wife Hilde May was also a cousin; his second wife was Marianne Liedtke.
EDWARD MAY, 1903–1968 (paternal uncle): born in Cologne. Doctor, amateur cellist, and master chef; emigrated to London in 1934.
KLAUS MELTZER, 1943–2017 (putative cousin): claimed to be a grandson of my great-uncle Theodor Liedtke. Son of Ellen Liedtke and Nazi Staffelkapitän Walter Meltzer. Lived in Cologne. Photographer; painter; educationalist; founded a community centre for Turkish women.
ELLEN LIEDTKE, 1919–1971: putative daughter of Theodor Liedtke, whom Ernst, Emmy, Marianne, Ursel, and Ilse all believed to be a childless bachelor.