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Fred Herz Family Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 25324 / MF 1025

Scope and Content Note

Series I contains personal and professional documents belonging to and pertaining to Fred and Gertrud Herz and their families. There are some genealogical documents including a family tree, and immigration and citizenship documents. There is some printed material, and newspaper and magazine clippings. The bulk of this collection, however, contains personal correspondence between family members and close friends, largely between 1936-1941. Related correspondence from the 1990s is between Fred Herz and the American Red Cross and the Memorial and Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and concerns relatives who disappeared during the Holocaust. There are, in addition, some religious documents which may be of particular interest, including a prayer-book for mourners, Jahrzeit (memorial) calendars and a Ketuba (marriage contract).

Series II is a collection of photographs of both sides of the family, and of Fred and Gertrud together since their marriage. Most are portraits, group photographs and holiday photographs. There are also photographs from a visit to Steinheim-am-Main in 2000.

Dates

  • 1904-2000
  • Majority of material found within 1936-1945

Creator

Language of Materials

The collection is primarily in German and English, and there is one document in Czech.

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 "Request" 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

Friedrich (later Fred) Herz was born in 1913 in Steinheim-am–Main, Germany.

Fred Herz went to Offenbach aged 15 or 16 to learn a trade; he worked for a company dealing in leather goods, A. N. Schmidt & Co. Eventually he moved to Berlin and worked for the same company, (which became Alligator Leather Goods Co. Ltd.) managing five of their stores. After Kristallnacht in November 1938 Fred Herz was taken to Dachau Concentration Camp. He was released several months later and went to England, and then moved to the United States in 1940. He married Gertrud Weinreb in 1942 and became an American citizen in 1946. They had two children, Cary and Leonard. Fred Herz died in the United States in 2001.

Gertrud (Weinreb) Herz was born in 1918 and was from an affluent Jewish family in Austria. Her father Heinrich (Chaim) Weinreb was originally from Poland. Her mother was Rosa née Steinhardt. She had one sister, Stella. She came to the United States at the end of the 1930s and died in 2004 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Extent

2 Linear Feet

Abstract

This collection contains correspondence, documents and photographs pertaining to the life of Fred Herz, his family and his wife's family, the Weinrebs. In particular there are several albums of family photographs ranging over the span of nearly a century.

Arrangement

The material has been divided into two series:

Microfilm

Collection is available on 2 reels of microfilm (MF 1025).

  1. Reel 1: 1/1-1/23
  2. Reel 2: 1/24-2/9

Separated Material

One magazine (Spessart) and some books have been removed from the collection (photocopies of front covers in Box 1, Folder 22).

Processing Information

The original order formed by the creator of the collection has been preserved. There are hand-written notes included by the creator of the collection aiding the researcher with additional or missing information.

Title
Guide to the Papers of the Fred Herz (1913-2001) Family 1904-2000 AR 25324 / MF 1025
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Corinne Shmuel
Date
© 2009
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.
Edition statement
This version was derived from FredHerz.xml

Revision Statements

  • August 21, 2012 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.

Repository Details

Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States