Ellen Citroen née Philippi

Ellen Philippi was born on June 30, 1872 in Berlin to Louis and Pauline Philippi. She had five siblings.

She married Hendrik Roelof Citroen, who came from a Dutch family active in the textile industry. He had moved from Amsterdam to Berlin and they established a home at Derfflinger Strasse 21, where Ellen Citroen also ran a soup kitchen for the poor. Four children were born: the artist Paul Citroen, Chanan Cidor (Hans Citroen), Ilse Luise Ledermann, and Charlotte Citroen. The family lived at Derfflinger Strasse 21. Hendrik Roelof Citroen died in October 1932 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee.

After the Nazis seized power, Ellen Citroen, like other family members, fled to the Netherlands, where she found temporary protection. After the German troops invaded, she was interned in the Vught-Hertogenbosch and Westerbork camps. She was deported from Westerbork to Bergen-Belsen in February 1944, where she was murdered on January 8, 1945.