Obituary of Elsie de Levie

Elsie de Levie, June 1, 1921 to October 23, 2020, age 99, a resident of Foxdale Village, died on October 23, 2020.

She is survived by sons, Raymond of Columbus, Ohio (grandson Alan) and Alvin (granddaughter Lauren) of State College. She was preceded in death by her husband, Dagobert (Dag) of 60 years, her parents Moses and Julie Sinn, her sister, Margot Menkel, and a niece and nephew.

Elsie was born in Cologne, Germany. Elsie recounted her escape from Nazi Germany, at age 19, in 1940, seven years after Hitler's "Ubernahme" (takeover) of the German Reich. Many Jews had already left Germany, but immigration to the United States by German Jews depended on the registration number given to them by the American consulate. The registration of Elsie's family was not called right away. Elsie and her family were getting more and more anxious every day. Dag, her then fiancé and later husband, had managed to escape Cologne, Germany and landed in Amsterdam, Holland. He lived there with a Dutch Jewish Family, the Rosenthals. Dag had been notified by the American Consulate his number would be called in short time. Elsie did not remember the details, but a friend of her family was notified there would be a small possibility that she could be brought to Holland for a small "fee." There would be "tour guides" (or as Elsie called them, crooks) and a night in a Dutch country house. The fee was high, and no person had that much money, so one of the "tour guides," had to travel by street car throughout Cologne to collect money from Elsie's uncle and aunts. The first time the escape was scheduled, it was cancelled because it was not safe to go. The "tour guides" had to return the money to her uncle and aunts because it was too dangerous for even the "tour guides" to have that much money overnight. Shortly thereafter, the "tour guides" collected the money again, Elsie was picked up and traveled to the Dutch border by car, where she stopped in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. Elsie had to make the last stretch in the dark on foot over fields covered with stones, guided by "two crossing guards." Elsie finally arrived in a small wooden house. In the center of the room stood a scrubbing pale, a bathroom, with a single electric bulb fastened to the ceiling socket. She was told to rest and sleep on the floor if possible. Elsie was awakened at dawn to get ready for the last part of the journey. She was told to empty her suitcase by putting on all her clothes, one on top of the other. She was then driven by car to the nearest railroad station with her destination Amsterdam, Holland to meet Dag. Elsie finally arrived in Amsterdam. She was let off near a building where Dag was staying. She rang the bell of an apartment where she was greeted by Dag's landlord, Mrs. Rosenthal. Elsie recounted she remembered so well the emotional greeting as she made it safely to Dag's place, but the journey was not yet over. Elsie had to travel with an escort to a church in Rotterdam, Holland, which had connections with the Dutch government. As Elsie described, there she was met by a "church lady in sensible shoes" who placed a stamp into her German passport, giving her permission to remain in Holland until Dag and her could book a ship sailing for, as she put it in her own words, the "good old USA." Elsie's account of her escape from Nazi Germany defined her and Dag's lives in State College.

Elsie was a homemaker until the late 1960s when she started to work at Penn State in the language laboratory in Sparks Building helping students.

Rather than a memorial contribution in her name, Elsie would have liked that anyone reading her obituary would perform a deed of kindness to someone they did not know.

Interment will be held on November 5, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at the Centre County Memorial Park.

Arrangements are under the care of the Koch Funeral Home, State College. Online condolences and the signing of the guestbook may be entered at www.kochfuneralhome.com.