Documented
The free Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation Arrival Records Collection returns five names on one NARA frame, T715-6512-590. Elfride Duntov-Arkus, female, 25, born 1915, Germany. Zachar Duntov-Arkus, male, 30, born 1910, Belgium. Jiri Duntov-Arkus, male, 23, born 1917, Russia. Rachel Duntov, female, 55, born 1885, Russia. Josef Duntov, male, 54, born 1886, Russia. Ship name: Nyassa. Arrival location: New York. Arrival year on the Foundation card: 1940. The card does not print a day or a month. Place of departure, last residence, nationality, and marital status are N/A on that card. Foundation IDs: Elfride 24L8-W2W, Zachar 24L8-W27. The FamilySearch image ARK cited by the Foundation was not opened from this desk (HTTP 403). This page does not pretend we have read that picture.
Ancestry All Access, 15 August 2026, files the same sailing under New York arriving passenger lists. Viewer path: Date, 1940, December, 04, Nyassa. Locked for the sailing, not for a deck hour: Lisbon, Portugal, to New York, 4 December 1940. Last known residence for all five: Paris, France. Person in the old country: Arcus, 4 Square / Place Trocadéro, Paris (the index spells Squere and Place). Elfride’s indexed detail: married, 5 ft 6 in, hair brown, eyes gray, complexion fair, scar on left leg, birth place Germany, other Treptov. Treptov is read as Treptow, Berlin. It is not locked as a street. Occupation, money, visa, and line numbers were not read at zoom. Jacques, Yakov, Arkus the father: not on this list.
The ship’s weather, not her eyes
The New York Times, Thursday 5 December 1940, page 16, names the 8,980-ton Nyassa in Quarantine with the “out of control” flag flying from her rigging. Steering machinery froze during sub-zero weather the previous Monday, 2 December. She was steered by hand from the poop deck. The paper counts 458 passengers from Lisbon. Named interviews in that column belong to other people: Hartogs, Straus, Valusis. No Duntov, no Arkus, no Elfride, no Elfi, no Zachar, no Zora. They are on the index. They are not in the pier interviews. The captain of this crossing is not in that article. Bettencourt is a later voyage (March 1941). We do not put him on this bridge.
Wikipedia later writes Hoffman Island for this arrival and cites the Times shipping column on page 51, “Arrived Yesterday.” That page was not freely readable on our pass. The feature we did read says Quarantine, not Hoffman Island. Hoffman Island as a named station for this family is OPEN. This page does not walk her onto Hoffman Island, Ellis Island, or a Hoboken pier.
What the names are not
Rachel and Josef sit on the same frame. Later biography calls them Zora’s mother and stepfather. Those relationship words are not quoted from this sheet. We keep the five names. We do not invent a cabin or a conversation. We do not put Elfi on deck. The photograph on this page is a period photograph of Elfi Arkus-Duntov. It is labelled period. It is not a Nyassa still.
What the hour is not
It is not the wedding hour. The Billancourt yes is 11 February 1939. It is not the harder drive. The open MG out of Paris is 13 June 1940. The Berlin café is 9 August 1935, a dry night. The 1954 Le Mans car is later still. The First Lady title is Hall of Fame tradition, 2022. More on the title and on Zora and the Corvette sits on this site. The ashes wait at the National Corvette Museum.
Margot Dorée is writing the forthcoming novel in that lane. North Star Publishing Group will publish it. Working title First Lady of Corvette. Expected September 2026. It is independent. It is not in the museum shop. It will not put her on the poop deck, name a captain we do not have, or treat 4 December as a stamped landing hour until the unread image says so.
While that book is still on the way, the live book in the same house is The Woman on the Bonnet: another woman, another crossing, another record that will not be decorated.
Sources: Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation Arrival Records (Elfride Duntov-Arkus 24L8-W2W; Zachar 24L8-W27; Jiri 24L8-W24; Rachel 24L8-W2Q; Josef 24L8-W23; ship Nyassa; year 1940; frame T715-6512-590). Ancestry, New York arriving lists, 15 Aug 2026: Date > 1940 > December > 04 > Nyassa (Lisbon; 4 Dec 1940 New York; last residence Paris; Arcus, 4 Square / Place Trocadéro; Hebrew; citizenship intention Yes; Elfride 5 ft 6 in, brown hair, gray eyes, scar on left leg; Treptov not locked as a street). The New York Times, 5 Dec 1940, p. 16 (8,980-ton Nyassa; Quarantine; “out of control” flag; freeze 2 Dec; 458 from Lisbon; named interviews not this family; captain unnamed). p. 51 unread. Hoffman Island OPEN. Bettencourt is March 1941 only. FamilySearch ARK unread (403). Jacques not on this list. No deck scene. Relationship labels mother / stepfather are later biography, not this sheet.