Documented
Elfi Arkus-Duntov parents enter the civil record as names, not as guests. On Boulogne-Billancourt acte n° 69, 11 February 1939, 15:30, cote 1E_NUM_BOU_M1939, the bride is typed Elfriede WOLFF, danseuse, born Berlin 25 April 1915. Her parents are listed for identification: William WOLFF and Klara LAPOEHN, son épouse, tous deux sans profession, domiciliés à Berlin, Bayernallee 15. The acte does not say they were présents, consentants, or témoins. The next acte that afternoon does mark a parent who was there. Acte 69 does not. The short Billancourt wedding note already owns the hour. This page owns the household side-door only.
Berlin marriage, 1 July 1914
William Wolff married Klara Frieda Mathilde Lapoehn on 1 July 1914 at Standesamt Neukölln II, certificate 317/1914. Burton’s 1914 year holds. The reconstructed Erstregister names his parents Hermann Wolff and Dosea / Dohre Wolff (index spelling) and hers Julius Alexander Lapoehn and Marie Catharina Lapoehn. Elfi is not on that certificate. No child is named. Births already filed for the parents: William, 25 May 1879, Standesamt Berlin VIII, Nr. 1010; Klara Frieda Mathilde Lapoehn, 24 October 1888, Standesamt Berlin VI, Nr. 2412. Ancestry Berlin births (collection 5753) stop in 1910, so Elfi 1915 and her siblings are a clean Ancestry negative there. Landesarchiv remains the next door for those births.
Burton household sketch
Jerry Burton’s authorized life, drawing on Elfi as a source, identifies the family as Jewish, Berlin, well-to-do, tied to a greeting-card firm under the Herman Wolff name, with factories in Berlin and Dresden. Elfi is the oldest of four. Informant notes later name siblings Ruth and Walter among them; the fourth stays lightly tagged. Museum Hall of Fame copy calls the family artistic and Berlin-born; it does not print the parents’ names. NCM painting copy says a present from her father plus a lottery ticket bought the MG J2. The father is unnamed on that label. The MG drive note holds the harder drive. This page will not invent which factory floor she walked or a dinner-table scene.
Fate stays OPEN
After the 1930s Berlin sketch, the public record does not yet show what happened to William and Klara. No matching Gedenkbuch or Yad Vashem entry for this William Wolff married to this Klara Lapoehn has been locked. Do not write a camp. Do not write a rescue. Do not confuse them with Zora’s parents Rachel and Josef, who sit on the Marseille exit-visa lane, or with other Clara / Elfriede Wolffs who are different people. Find a Grave blanks the parents; that volunteer gap is not a void in the civil files already opened. Silence after Bayernallee 15 is the honest label until a primary closes it.
What this page will not do
No invented parents in the wedding room. No invented sibling dialogue. No claim that LostLift or any third-party collapse is locked to this couple. No claim that the forthcoming novel is a partnership with General Motors, Chevrolet, or the National Corvette Museum. Period photographs of Elfi here are labelled period. NCM film stills stay UNLICENSED and are not used.
Margot Dorée is writing First Lady of Corvette in that lane. North Star Publishing Group publishes. The retail title must say Corvette. The artefacts are labelled. Images remain UNLICENSED until a written license is in hand. Cross-links: the Berlin café meeting, the First Lady title note, and the notes index.
If you searched Elfi Arkus-Duntov parents, you were looking for William Wolff and Klara Lapoehn on the register and the Berlin civil files. Bayernallee 15 is Documented as the 1939 domicile line. The 1914 Neukölln marriage is Documented. Fate after that sketch stays OPEN. The novel will not decorate the silence.
Sources: Boulogne-Billancourt acte 69, 11 Feb 1939, 15:30, cote 1E_NUM_BOU_M1939 (parents William WOLFF + Klara LAPOEHN, Berlin Bayernallee 15; ID only, not présents). Berlin marriage William Wolff × Klara Frieda Mathilde Lapoehn, 1 Jul 1914, Standesamt Neukölln II, Nr. 317 (Ancestry Berlin Marriages 1874–1944; reconstructed Erstregister). William birth 25 May 1879, Standesamt Berlin VIII Nr. 1010; Klara birth 24 Oct 1888, Standesamt Berlin VI Nr. 2412. Jerry Burton, Zora Arkus-Duntov: The Legend Behind Corvette (Bentley, 2002), Ch. 2 household sketch (Jewish; Herman Wolff greeting cards; Elfi oldest of four). NCM HOF / painting copy (artistic family; father unnamed on MG gift line). Parents’ fate after 1930s OPEN (no matching Gedenkbuch lock this couple). Do not seat parents at wedding. Do not invent camp or rescue. Forthcoming novel independent. Images UNLICENSED until written license.