Richard Faerber Family Collection

The collection primarily documents the early life of Richard Faerber. It also includes materials about his son, Walter Ferber, and other family materials, about the Faerber, Lewkowitz, and Persicaner families. Of particular interest are handwritten materials about the Faerber family's time in Havana, Cuba, during the late 1930s, and two personal photo albums documenting Richard Faerber's World War One service in Poland and France.

Documents concerning Richard Faerber include some correspondence with his sister Alma, financial and emigration documents from the 1930s, various drivers licenses, professional references, and some restitution documents. A German typescript and English translation of the Faerber family's journey to and time in Havana, Cuba, in the late 1930s, entitled "Our Voyage to Havana," is also found in this collection.

The Walter Ferber materials include a poem published in the Juedische Rundschau newspaper in 1938, a copy of his birth certificate, and a manuscript and typescript of a German poem about the Faerber family experience in Havana.

Materials related to the Faerber, Lewkowitz, and Persicaner families are primarily vital documents. Also included is a small amount of Faerber family correspondence, and a manuscript last will and testament for Isaac Persicaner from 1863.

Also included is an item-level list of materials that were offered to the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Some were accepted, and some were donated to the LBI as part of the present collection.

This collection contains about forty loose photographs, including three cartes de visite and two cabinet cards. The remainder is black and white silver gelatin prints. The photos capture images of Walter Ferber as a child, Richard and Margot Faerber, Richard's sister, mother, and aunt, as well as Margot's parents Franz and Adele Lewkowitz.

The collection also contains three photograph albums, which are in excellent condition. One album contains photos of Walter Ferber as a child, from about three to about seven years old. Included are photos of vacations at the beach and in the mountains, in Neustrelitz, Germany and Engelberg, Switzerland, as well as informal daily life and portraits. Also included in this collection are two photograph albums that document Richard Faerber's service in a transport unit of the German Army during World War One. One album contains photos of his time in Warsaw and Łódź. This album primarily shows city life, including street markets, buildings, members of a Yiddish theater, and soldiers lounging and posing. The second album contains images from Faerber's service in France. These include photos of destroyed villages, tanks, planes, and other military images. Some of the photographs show dead soldiers.

This collection primarily concerns the Faerber's life in Germany and Cuba. It contains very little information about the Faerber family after their arrival in New York.