Herbert Guenzburger Collection

The collection contains a substantial amount of documents and correspondence pertaining to the emigration of members the Günzburger family of Lörrach, Baden, first to Switzerland in 1939 and then to the United States in 1941.

Correspondence with Swiss, British, German, American, and Portugese officials and documents regarding the emigration comprise the overwhelming bulk of the collection. These documents include affidavits, various forms and applications, inventories of property (for shipping purposes and the Reichsfluchtsteuer), and letters of recommendation. Intermixed with some of the applications and forms are various vital records documents and personal papers. Of particular note is some of the paperwork from the German authorities, which shows the taxes the family had to pay to leave Germany and gives evidence that the authorities seized a number of their valuables. In addition, some of the Swiss paperwork shows that Herbert Guenzburger spent time interned in a Swiss work camp for refugees.

The collection also has a number of personal and vital papers, not just for the Guenzburgers but also for members of some related families, notably the Heilbronners and the Weils. These materials include identification cards, professional documents, and marriage and birth certificates. The folder on the Weil family indicates that Herbert Guenzburger attempted to contact the family while serving in the American army during the Second World War. A small folder on Judith Geismar offers insight into the experience of displaced refugees in France and Germany during the period immediately after the war.

Finally, a number of photographs round out the collection. Some of these photos show scenes of family and city life before the war, but most consist of Herbert Guenzbacher's photographs of Germany at the end of the war, including images of destroyed cityscapes and of the Buchenwald and Nordhausen concentration camps upon their liberation.