Westerbork (Concentration camp)

This collection contains the archival papers of Arthur Rath. Most of it consists of correspondence with friends and family members. Primary topics of the collection are Arthur's life in Switzerland towards the end of World War II and the decades immediately after, correspondence with friends who were also Jewish refugees from Germany after the war, and Arthur Rath's life decisions following the displacement of his family during the war.

The Egon Fromm Family Collection documents the lives of members of the Fromm and Heumann families, with a focus on the families of Walter Fromm and Carola Heumann, the parents of Egon Fromm. Included is family correspondence that relates to the family's emigration and search for relatives after the war. Other papers include songs and speeches from family weddings, a friendship book, passports and genealogy research for both branches of the family.

The Eric Zielenziger Collection includes materials dealing with various members of the Zielenziger family. The bulk of the collection consists of Ruth Zielenziger’s teaching materials. Materials dealing with other members of the family include vital and school documents, certificates, financial documents, some family correspondence, genealogical tables, and a large number of Kurt Zielenziger’s manuscripts.

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.

The bulk of the materials in this collection concern Arthur Bial's education and professional career as a physician in Germany, his emigration to the Netherlands in the 1930s and internment in the Westerbork camp. There is also a diary-memoir written by his son who also survived internment in Westerbork.

This collection consists of the personal papers of the Hochherr family of southwestern Germany. Materials include vital records, photographs, a genealogical chart, a family history, official records of family members’ deportations and deaths in extermination camps, an account of life in Nazi-occupied Holland, and an account of an escape to Switzerland. With the exception of the photographs, the collection consists entirely of photocopies.

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.

The Walter Zvi Bacharach Collection consists of various personal and professional documents, testimonials, certificates, newspaper clippings, notes and correspondence from the life of Walter Zvi Bacharach and his family. They mostly concern his life in Germany and the Netherlands, his captivity during the Holocaust as well as his liberation. Furthermore, the collection contains correspondence, testimonials and documents regarding his life and academic career in Israel. Additional family documents as well as family correspondence are included in the collection.

The collection holds two autobiographical writings by the artist Elisabeth Model. One work centers on her husband’s persecution by the Nazis in Amsterdam, their narrow escape with their sons Wolfe and Peter, and her sister Mali to New York, and their life in the United States. Her second work focuses on her life in relation to various places and people that impressed her. Also included are family photo albums, some correspondence, and other documents that constitute addenda to the original Elisabeth Model Collection, AR 6306.