Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)

This collection documents the family of Bernhard Wolff, extending back to his earliest known ancestor in 1646 through his grandchildren born in the 1970s. Born in Esens (Ostfriesland, Germany), Bernhard escaped National Socialist persecution by emigrating to Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1938, followed shortly thereafter by his wife Fanny née Mitau. His six siblings and mother Flora née Oppenheimer also emigrated, eventually settling in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, or the U.S. The collection contains correspondence, family trees, vital records, official documents, and photographs of family and Jewish historical sites. Also included are a three-volume family chronicle and a two-volume collection of materials on the Jewish community of Esens (Ostfriesland) created by Bernhard Wolff. A unique highlight of the collection is the postcard album belonging to Fanny’s mother Ida Mitau née Jacobsohn, who was not able to escape Germany and perished in Theresienstadt.

Elsa Oestreicher, née Herz, born in Berlin in 1878 and married to the physician D. Jacques Oestreicher, was a successful cooking instructor and author of cookbooks. In 1942 she was deported to Theresienstadt where she also worked as a cook, cooking instructor and as head of the soup-kitchen until her liberation in 1945. The collection contains Elsa Oestreicher’s notes on Theresienstadt, concentration-camp insignia, correspondence, poems and memoirs by her as well as official documents such as certificates related to her profession.

Writings (all photocopies) by Richard Frank and his sister, Hedwig Ems, as well as by Reinhard Frank.

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 documents the family history and restitution claims of Gertrude Guckenheimer née Goldschmidt (1916-2003) and her husband Ludwig Guckenheimer (1911-1991). Half of the collection relates to the family histories and family businesses of Gertrude and Ludwig, while the other half documents the restitution claims brought by them and their family members. Included are family trees, birth, marriage, and death certificates, inheritance documents, business contracts, and personal and business correspondence, bank records, official and legal documents concerning restitution claims, and a few photographs. The history of the family businesses Herz Hachenburger Sohn and Max Baer Söhne are well documented in contracts and correspondence.

The core of this collection contains published as well as unpublished manuscripts by Richard A. Ehrlich, centering on his life in the Prussian town of Rogasen and his internment in Thersienstadt. Also included are his correspondence with Albert Einstein, Bertha Badt-Strauss and others, as well as documents pertaining to the extended Alexander-Ehrlich family.

The collection holds correspondence and manuscripts pertaining to the extended Weil family. The bulk of the correspondence comes from Berthold and Selma Weil in Frankfurt and in England to their children in Palestine/Israel and in the USA. Also included are letters from Rickchen Rosenthal née Marx (Selma Weil’s mother) from Frankfurt and Theresienstadt.