Louis Rosenzweig Collection
Scope and Content Note
The Louis Rosenzweig Collection holds the papers of Louis Rosenzweig and several of his family members. Predominant topics in this collection include the family's restitution claims, immigration experiences, and the education and professional development of Louis and Grete Rosenzweig. Among the items in this collection are extensive restitution correspondence, official and personal documents, and a few memoirs and newspaper clippings.
Series I contains the personal and professional papers of Louis and Grete Rosenzweig, as well as of some of their family members, including their children. Included are educational and professional papers that document their education and eventual employment in Germany. Other papers in this series show their immigration to the United States and Louis Rosenzweig's shift in employment possibilities during the late 1930s. Two memoirs in this series provide a narrative overview of the family's experiences. Some material documents the Rosenzweigs' family property, including a folder of household items upon their emigration from Germany and a folder on the sale of family real estate in Kassel.
Restitution claims for Louis and Grete Rosenzweig comprise Series II. This series holds extensive legal and financial documentation on the claims, as well as supporting documentation.
Dates
- 1885-2003
- Majority of material found within 1920-1960
Creator
- Rosenzweig, Louis, 1885-1960 (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in English and German, with some Italian.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers.
Access Information
Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.
Readers may access the collection by visiting the Lillian Goldman Reading Room at the Center for Jewish History. We recommend reserving the collection in advance; please visit the LBI Online Catalog and click on the Reserve button.
Use Restrictions
There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:
Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org
Biographical Note
Louis Rosenzweig was born on August 18, 1885 in Kassel, Germany. He was the son of Traugott Rosenzweig, a chemist, and his wife Henriette Rosenzweig née Eisenberg. Louis Rosenzweig attended the Gymnasium in Kassel and in 1902 became apprenticed to a merchant. Later he worked as a clerk in factories and export firms in Kassel, Berlin and Paris. On May 1, 1911 he became manager of the Federstahl-Aktiengesellschaft in Kassel. In 1919 he married Grete Kaufmann, who was one of only a few women at the time trained in goldsmithing. The couple had two children, Ernst and Irmgard.
From 1931-1933 Louis Rosenzweig worked as an independent public accountant, attending to the affairs of Jewish immigrants. From 1931-1939 he also served as a member of the administration of the Jewish Community of Kassel and also assisted with overseeing the finances of the Jewish Orphanage of Kassel. On Kristallnacht he was arrested along with many other men in his community, but was released a few days later. In December 1938 he became an agent for the Cunard White Star Line. In 1940 Louis and Grete Rosenzweig immigrated to the United States via Italy, while their children had already been sent to England on kindertransports. After a brief sojourn in New York the family was reunited with their daughter while Ernst remained in England; the family resettled in the Midwest. Following a stay at the Quaker Scattergood hostel in Iowa to acclimate themselves to the different culture, the family moved to Eureka, Illinois in 1941, assisted by a local church congregation. There Louis Rosenzweig worked as an accountant.
Louis Rosenzweig died in 1960 in New Haven, Connecticut, where he and his wife had moved in order to be closer to other family members.
Extent
1 Linear Feet
Abstract
The Louis Rosenzweig Collection records the personal experiences and professional lives of Louis and Grete Rosenzweig and the family's efforts to attain restitution for their experiences in Germany. Among the papers in this collection are a substantial amount of restitution correspondence and documentation as well as papers that documented their lives in Germany, including their education, employment and professions, and Louis Rosenzweig's military service. Other papers focus on their immigration to the United States or on other family members.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in two series:
Microfilm
The collection is on three reels of microfilm (MF 1076):
- Reel 1: 1/1 - 1/30
- Reel 2: 1/31 - 1/36
- Reel 3: 1/37 - 1/41
Separated Material
The book Gold, Silber und Edelsteine by Alexander Wagner (no annotations), which belonged to Grete Rosenzweig, has been removed from the collection.
Processing Information
The collection, including the addition of one linear foot of addenda, was processed in April 2010 in preparation for the EAD finding aid and microfilming. Similar materials were grouped together to form series and overfilled folders were divided into smaller folders.
- Business -- History
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Economic history -- 1918-1945
- Emigration and immigration
- Eureka (Ill.)
- Goldsmiths
- Kassel (Germany)
- Kaufmann family
- Memoirs
- Notebooks
- Official documents
- Restitution
- Rosenzweig family
- Rosenzweig, Grete, 1895-
- Rosenzweig, Louis, 1885-1960
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of Louis Rosenzweig (1885-1960) 1885-2003 AR 25377
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Dianne Ritchey and LBI Staff
- Date
- © 2010
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from LouisRosenzweig.xml
Revision Statements
- November 2010.: Microfilm inventory added.
- November 16, 2011 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository