Herta Grove Family Collection

Moses Levi (1873-1938) was a criminal defense attorney in Altona, Germany. Levi created a name for himself defending Roma and Sinti individuals accused of crimes. In 1905, Moses Levi successfully defended Mpundu Akwa, called the “Crown Prince” of Cameroon by German imperialists, in a high-profile case in which Akwa was accused of fraud. In 1905, Moses Levi and Bertha (Betty) née Lindenberger (1882-1942) were married. Bertha Levi was deported to Auschwitz in July of 1942, where she perished shortly afterwards. In 1997, the Betty-Levi-Passage in Altona was named after her.

Moses and Bertha Levi’s son Walter J. Levy studied law in Heidelberg, Kiel, and Berlin. He immigrated to London in 1933, where he enrolled at the London School of Economics. In London, he worked as an assistant to the editor of the Petroleum Press Bureau. In 1941, Walter moved to the US, where he served in the petroleum section of the Office of Strategic Services in Washington from 1942-1945. After the war, he continued to serve as an oil consultant to the US government. In 1982, he published a book, Oil Strategy and Politics, 1941-81. He died in 1997.

Moses and Bertha Levi’s daughter Herta Grove née Levi fled Nazi Germany to England, where she founded the Great Missenden Choral Society in 1948. She served as its musical director until 1954. She then immigrated to the United States, where she and her husband Victor Grove worked as interpreters for the State Department. She died in Pennsylvania in January of 2014.