The Heymann family had lived in Kamen since the start of the 19th century. After attending high school, Otto Heymann completed a commercial apprenticeship.
In the First World War, he served in the 5th Westphalian Infantry Regiment 53.

On 25 April 1921, Otto Heymann married Karoline Vollweiler in Gemmingen. Their first son, Erich Heymann, had already been born earlier, on 4 May 1918.

From 1921, the Heymanns lived in Dortmund. Otto Heymann worked as a representative in textiles. On 17 June 1922, their daughter Ilse was born in Dortmund.

From 1933, the family’s financial situation deteriorated. In 1937, Otto Heymann had to give up his textile representation. Until it was “Aryanized” in 1938, he found employment as a statistician at the Kaufmann department store on Westenhellweg.

Ilse Heymann attended the Marie Reinders Intermediate School, where there were only few Jewish students. While at school, she joined the Jewish youth organization “Maccabi Hatzair”.
After leaving school, Ilse Heymann stayed from July to November 1938 in Cologne, where she continued to be involved in the youth movement. She lived with friends and worked as a housemaid.
In the course of the November pogrom of 1938, Otto Heymann was detained first in Steinwache police station and was then sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was interned until 15 December 1938. This was a trigger for the children Erich and Ilse to leave Germany. Ilse’s brother fled via illegal channels to Palestine. Ilse Heymann moved in 1939 to the Netherlands in order to undergo training in agriculture at the “Werkdorp Wieringermeer” in preparation for emigration to Palestine.

On 29 July 1942, Otto and Karoline Heymann were deported from Dortmund to Theresienstadt. The Heymanns survived their imprisonment in Theresienstadt and were able to emigrate on 25 January 1949 to Israel, where their children were already living.
Otto Heymann died on 1 February 1955 in Haifa, Israel, Karoline Heymann on 7 December 1964.

In the Werkdorp, Else Heymann met Günther Ernst Aronade (1918–1944), whom she married on 9 July 1942 in Amsterdam. Her husband was arrested on 20 June 1943 and interned in Westerbork transit camp. He managed to escape from the camp on 15 September 1943, and he and Ilse went underground.
The couple attempted to flee together to the unoccupied part of France, but were captured by the Gestapo on the demarcation line and interned in the “Chateau de Bourbons” prison. From there, the Aronades were taken to the Drancy transit camp and deported on 10 February 1944 to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Günter Aronade caught typhus and died of the disease in April 1944 in Auschwitz.

Ilse Aronade was assigned to tasks in various work squads, latterly sorting clothes. With the war front nearing the camp in January 1945, she was sent on the “death march” to Ravensbrück. From Ravensbrück, Ilse Aronade was temporarily transferred to Rechlin camp, where she had to assist in the performance of repairs to an airfield.

On 15 April 1945, with the aid of the Swedish Red Cross, Ilse Aronade was taken to Sweden. In July 1945, she went from Sweden for six months to Holland, and then travelled to Palestine, where she arrived on 25 January 1946.
On 1 December 1947, Ilse Aronade married Rolf Elsberg (born 10 April 1919 in Munich). She already knew him from the Werkdorp Wieringermeer. They had two children, Jochanan (born 28 May 1948) and Vardit (born 10 January 1953). Ilse Elsberg died on 8 January 1986 in Israel.