Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Carnegie never married, never had children, and rarely spoke of her past. She became a librarian — fittingly — at a Carnegie-funded branch in Bethnal Green. Colleagues knew her as “Miss Carnegie,” a stern but kind woman who always wore a silver locket containing a photograph of two people she called “her late aunt and uncle.”
Among her possessions was the original deed poll. On the back, in her elegant calligraphy, she had written: joyce penelope wilhelmina frankenberg current name
“Frankenberg is not my name now. But it was my father’s name. And before that, it was no one’s enemy.” Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Carnegie never married, never had
But the story behind that document is not one of marriage, nor of vanity. It is a story of escape. On the back, in her elegant calligraphy, she
She died in 1993 at age 78. Her will left £5,000 to the Wiener Holocaust Library, with a handwritten note: “For the preservation of names that were erased.”