Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)

This collection contains the records of the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews, an organization founded in 1961, in New York City, by members of the Joseph Popper unit of B’nai B’rith, to foster and disseminate knowledge about the history and culture of Jews in the Czech and Slovak lands. Along with the Joseph Popper unit and, later, the Holocaust Survivors of Slovakia, the society sponsored an annual memorial service held in New York City to honor Czechoslovak Jews who perished in the Holocaust. A majority of the records are from the tenure of Rabbi Norman Patz as president (1994-2008). The materials primarily comprise correspondence, and items related to the annual memorial service, including texts of addresses, and yizkor memorial booklets. Also included are meeting minutes, letters to the membership, financial reports, writings, speeches, obituaries, clippings, photographs, and printed ephemera. The society's correspondence reflects its participation in cultural events related to Czech and Slovak Jewish history, as well as its relationship to the Jewish communities in the Czech Republic and, to a lesser extent, Slovakia; some correspondence with members contains genealogical information.

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 holds the papers of Bernhard Kolb, the business manager of the Jewish Community of Nuremberg. Among the material here are personal papers with some information on the Kolb family as well as a small amount of papers of Hans and Käte Bruck and some material on Jewish communities, especially that of Nuremberg. However, the collection is largely comprised of records from Theresienstadt and the offices of Der Stürmer, the Nazi newspaper. The collection includes official records such as lists, reports and announcements; correspondence; unpublished manuscripts; notes; and some photographs and drawings.

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.

The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence to Bertha Badt-Strauss from various writers and friends between 1940 and 1969. The letters deal with topics related to emigration/immigration, Judaism, Zionism and publishing opportunities in the United States and Mexico. Included are manuscripts, poems, photographs and clippings of Badt-Strauss's correspondents, as well as some of her own writings.

The majority of the materials in this collection consist of original and some published documents pertaining to the Berlin physician Curt Bejach and his family. Also included are original correspondence and published articles about the physicist Samuel Goudsmit.

This collection pertains to the life of Doris Rauch (née Perlhefter), her uncle Norbert Troller, and fellow Holocaust survivors Oscar Bittner and Oscar Jellinek. It encompasses government documents and Rauch’s identification forms issued by the United States and Czechoslovakia, as well as her correspondence relating to family and Holocaust history in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Included are photographs of friends and family engaged in recreation or as posed portraits, the great majority in black and white. Authored by Norbert Troller himself are a memoir manuscript and family tree denoting those members killed during the Holocaust.

This collection documents the experiences of members of the Solinger and Vogel families of Aschaffenburg, Germany with a particular focus on Ernst Solinger (1913-2008) and his wife Martha née Vogel (1917-2007). Materials include correspondence, photographs, poems, vital records, property and inheritance papers. Also included are records of Ernst and Martha Solinger’s emigration, education, banking, and taxes, as well as their efforts to sponsor their parents’ emigration and their later restitution efforts on behalf of their parents.

The collection consists of private correspondence, personal documents and writings of Eva Heilberg Schäffer, her parents, her husband Hans Schäffer, her daughters and other relatives and friends.

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 collection consists of material pertaining to Rabbi Leo Baeck. The material, mostly secondary, was collected by the Leo Baeck Institute’s staff and in some cases bear markings and notes by the Institute’s staff.

This collection contains the personal papers of members of the Hecht, Bielefeld, Günther, and Gottschalk families. Materials range widely in time period and content, providing insight into varied experience of these families from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. Materials include vital records, emigration records, apprenticeship and journeyman records for a merchant, education records, letters of recommendation, personal correspondence, military records from World War I and World War II, restitution claims, property records, tax and financial records, friendship books (Poesiealben), documents related to religious services during military service, family trees, photographs, a diary about emigration, and a Hebrew primer.

This collection documents the experience of Hedwig Geng née Berg (1891-1981) as a Jewish woman living in Munich during the Nazi regime and her survival of Theresienstadt. Materials include personal correspondence, official correspondence and directives, ephemera from Theresienstadt, identification papers, poems, notes, clippings, and a few photographs.

This collection contains personal and official documents pertaining to the family’s immigration to the United States and their situation in Germany as the political climate deteriorated. Included are a large amount of personal letters, supplemented by various other documents from government and military offices, some genealogical and tracing certificates, as well as other various material.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Joseph (Joe) Quittner, mostly correspondence and notebook entries but also including photographs, pictures and newspaper clippings, family papers, personal and professional writings, and other personal documents. These materials reflect Joe Quittner’s childhood experiences in Vienna (Austria) during the Nazi regime, his escape via Kindertransport to England in 1938, and his work as a radio engineer in England as well as a radio technician in Canada. The collection also provides information about the rest of his family, especially his parents Egon and Amalie Quittner (Weltmann), who died in the Holocaust.

The Kern-Martin Family Collection contains extensive family correspondence and documentation of members of the related Kern-Martin, Kern, Temple, and other families. Correspondence with friends, colleagues, and more distant relatives is included. Other family members' papers include many family photographs, education documents, writings and diaries, official documents, obituaries, and other papers.

This collection contains the family papers of the Loewald and Landshut families, notably personal and vital papers from before, during and after World War II which illustrate both the family's history and personal and professional lives. In particular, this collection amply documents the family's emigration in 1939, as well as a relative's internment in Theresienstadt, through legal documents and personal and official correspondence. There are also a large number of photographs illustrating Rosa Loewald's work as a nurse during World War I.

This collection contains the personal papers of members of the Leiter and Berliner families of Hamburg and Berlin. Some members of these families immigrated to the United States in the late 1930s while others survived World War II in Amsterdam, as forced laborers in Berlin, or in Theresienstadt. Materials include vital documents, official papers, personal correspondence, poems, clippings, official announcements and orders, banking records, restitution materials, and a few photographs.

The Leo Baeck Collection documents the life and work of Rabbi Leo Baeck, well-known as a leader, scholar, and spokesman for German Jewry. Although the most prominent items in this collection are articles, clippings, and biographical material on Leo Baeck, the collection also holds original manuscripts of his writing, as well as personal documents, correspondence, and a small amount of photographs and artwork.

This collection is primarily composed of the correspondence of the Wahl family from the 1930s-1950s.

The contents of the collection concerns the parents of Marion Freyer Wolff, Leo and Eva Freyer née Lichtenstein, as well as other extended members of the family. Included are school certificates, report cards, marriage certificates, correspondence, documents on World War II internment in Theresienstadt, and manuscripts about the German Socialist politician Hugo Haase who was assassinated in 1919. His wife was the sister of Marion Wolff's grandfather.

This collection contains Max Jacobson's family papers, as well as a substantial number of materials related to the Jacobson family's internment in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and to Max Jacobson's life as a displaced person in Germany in 1945.

This collection contains correspondence and family papers from the Mittler, Herzog, and Picard families, mostly from or concerning the time and events of the Holocaust.

This collection consists of documents of the Nothmann family, including personal correspondence and official documents, such as passports and certificates. A lot of the material is about or from the time of the Nazi persecution.

This collection contains official certificates documenting the lives of four family members of the Ogutsch-Katz family. Also included are report cards, clippings, correspondence, and obituaries, as well as many photographs.

Documents refer to the Ostwald, Tendlau and Cohen families. One focus is on the life of Alice Witte née Cohn. Of special significance is a letter that Karl Siche wrote to Alice Witte. Together with Alice Witte's former husband Max Witte, Karl Siche was detained in a concentration camp. Here Max Witte passed away. There is also a remarkable letter from Hedwig Ostwald, which she wrote in Theresienstadt in 1944, prior to her deportation to Auschwitz where she died. Her husband Max Ostwald, a lawyer and the head of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (district Westphalia) had already died in 1942 in Theresienstadt from disease.

The Paul Egon Cahn Collection holds personal and official papers of Paul Egon and Senta Ilse Cahn and their families, as well as about one thousand personal and family photographs.

This collection contains various material about the Pretzfelder Family and the Kristallglasfabrik Spiegelau. The emphasis of the collection lies on the loss, restitution and postwar development of the glass factory in Bavaria and the rise of Fritz Pretzfelder (later Frederick Preston) as a successful industrial businessman. The collection also documents the family's immigration to Great Britain in 1938 and other family events. The collection includes many family photographs.

This collection contains the papers of Resi Weglein and reflects various periods of her life, especially the time period 1942 to 1945. Resi Weglein and her husband Siegmund Weglein were deported to Theresienstadt in August 1942, where she helped to provide health services to the detainees. The bulk of the documents in the collection consist of personal correspondence, restitution materials, emigration and immigration papers, and photographs. The collection also includes two handwritten notebooks of Resi Weglein and associated manuscripts which reflect her experiences as a nurse in Theresienstadt. The collection also provides information about the rest of her family, especially her husband Siegmund Weglein, who served in World War I, and her son Walter Weglein (later Weglyn), who was rescued via Kindertransport. Also included are clippings, book reviews, reports and correspondence from the War Refugee Board, and an assortment of materials pertaining to the Theresienstadt period.