Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)

The collection consists almost entirely of newspaper clippings of Arno Herzberg’s articles. The articles deal with the Jewish situation in Germany in the 1930s, Israel and her problems with the outside world, Jewish holidays, and a small amount of articles dealing with economic issues, such as taxes. Other materials include a small amount of correspondence, manuscripts (all the manuscripts are photocopies lacking any annotations or remarks), and a memoir depicting the Hess family members between 1930 and the 1940s, including their imprisonment in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

The Beigel Family Collection holds materials about the Beigel family members from Berlin. The collection consists of post-war personal correspondence between the various family members and documents on restitution claims. It includes original handwritten letters and papers from the time Liane Beigel (née Bick) was in Sweden, as well as official correspondence with the United Restitution Organization after she immigrated to the United States. Also included are her husband Horst Beigel’s restitution claims against Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG.

This collection documents the history of the Weiss family with a focus on Gerald Weiss’ parents Jacob and Selma Weiss née Falk and their siblings. Jacob (alternatively Köbes) Weiss (1883-1965) was born the second of nine children to the cattle dealer Albert Weiss and his wife Mathilde Amalie née Michel. As a young man, he lived in Cologne and started a bed linen manufacturing business, S & J Weiss, with his brother Siegmund. As the situation for Jews in Germany worsened in the 1930s, he and Siegmund smuggled money from the business to banks in Holland to aid in the Weiss family’s emigration. Jacob Weiss emigrated with his wife and children in 1939 and settled in New York. This collection contains family trees, family correspondence, translations of family correspondence, vital records, immigration and naturalization records, correspondence and legal documents concerning restitution claims, correspondence and legal documents concerning the estate of Hermann and Carolina Michel née Frank, and correspondence and photographs concerning family gravesites and the restoration of a Jewish cemetery.

This collection primarily documents the professional life of the social worker Gertrude van Tijn, who worked with Jewish refugees in Amsterdam during the 1930s-1940s. Much of the material focuses on the experiences of Dutch Jewry along with the German-Jewish refugees who had fled to Holland. About half the collection relates to the manual training farm Werkdorp Nieuwesluis. Some reports on the postwar refugee situation in Shanghai and Australia and biographical material are also present. The collection includes reports, correspondence, official documents, newspaper clippings and articles and a few photographs.

This collection holds material relating to Karl Rosenthal, rabbi of the Berlin Reform Congregation and Temple of Israel in Wilmington, North Carolina. Items in this collection center on his life, especially his time as rabbi in Berlin, as well as on the life of his wife. In addition to biographical material, the collection also holds Karl Rosenthal's writings, such as sermons and published articles. There are also two tapes of a lengthy interview with Trudie Rosenthal that describe the Rosenthals' life in Germany.

The collection contains documentation of the life of Moritz Schweizer, particularly his persecution during World War II. Included in the collection is a diary excerpt listing concentration camp victims he buried after his liberation; correspondence; documents pertaining to his emigration from Germany to Amsterdam; documents pertaining to his internment in Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen; information kept by Schweizer on children in the orphanage at Bergen-Belsen; and letters of sympathy to his wife after his death.

This collection includes materials documenting Cheim's imprisonment in the concentration camps, including camp regulations, maps of camps and cemeteries, and most significantly, his memoir, which details not only his experience but also the administrative operation of the concentration camps, particularly the Nazis' use of Hollerith machines to track prisoners. It also includes a few personal papers of the Cheim family, including identity documents and postcards.

The collection documents the lives of Ludwig Löwenthal and his wife Rosa (née Kohn) with their teenage son, Willi during their time in the Netherlands and subsequent deportation to Theresienstadt. The collection includes personal correspondence from the camp and official documents from Germany and the Netherlands.