Elias Norman Helfer reached South Africa on 12 March 1910, aboard the Dover Castle. He was the son of Samuel Jacob Helfer and Gitel Miriam (Gertie Mary) Helfer, who were from Zidikae (Zhidik in Yiddish), Lithuania. Zidikae is 22 kilometers from Mažeikiai, which sent Vryburg the Lax, Poliak and Wald families. It seems he made his Vryburg district and settled near Geluk on the road to Kuruman. His naturalization application was made in Vryburg the same year he arrived. From his application we learn that he was a teacher of Hebrew and German and that his brother-in-law, Benjamin Suchedowitz (Suchet) made the application. By then, Benjamin had been in South Africa for 16 years and was married to Chana Pere Helfer.

 

As early as 1919, Elias or Eli sold his Geluk liquor license to the Bayer family. Eli ran a store at Geluk and owned three farms nearby. The farms were Putpan, Geluk and Warden. He also, for a while, hosted and worked with his nephew - Simon Maurice Suchet - whose mother, Chana Pere, was his sister (who was older?). In 1937, Chana Pere lost her husband who shortened his surname from Suchedowitz to Suchet. Simon Suchet married Fannie Katzin in 1926. Though married in Cape Town, they are listed as living at Geluk. Elias had a second sister, Sara Rachel Joffe, who passed away in Cape Town in 1946. Based on his will, Elias had a brother Harry Shulman, who went to the USA. It would seem that Elias had a non-Jewish life partner, Susanna Johanna Botes. She ran the Geluk store and inherited it. It is not known if they had children. Susanna was the daughter of the daughter of the foreman of Putpan and Geluk, WJ Botes. Botes and his wife, as well as the foreman of Warden, a van Vuuren, were all given money in his will. Elias was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Vryburg.