Nathan and Thekla Naumann Family Collection

Nathan Naumann (1899-1986) was born to Isak Naumann (1864-1930) and Jeanette (née Gutmann) Naumann (1868-1959) in Unsleben, Bavaria, in the Lower Franconia region of Germany. He had four siblings: Fanni (1892-1971, married Theo Mittel), Max (1893-1938, married Rose Mittel), Otto (1901-1974), and Ludwig (1895-1973, married Hilde Mittel). Between 1937 and 1939, the Naumann siblings and Jeanette all managed to emigrate, Otto to Johannesburg, South Africa, and the rest to the United States.

From 1917 to 1918, Nathan served in the German army along with two of his brothers. Upon his return, he and Ludwig joined their father Isak in the family business, the grain wholesaler Gebrueder Gaertner. The business came to the Naumann family via the mother of Isak Naumann's wife, Babette Gutmann (née Gaertner). After Isak's death in 1930, Nathan and Ludwig took over the firm. As conditions for Jews in Germany deteriorated, business became more difficult, and in late 1937 the brothers decided to liquidate the company.

In 1931, Nathan married Thekla Gutmann (1902-1995) of Windsbach, Bavaria. Their daughter Gertrud ("Trudy") Naumann Dreyer was born in 1932. In November 1938, after Nathan was briefly detained during Kristallnacht, the family left Germany. They arrived in New York in October 1939, after a nearly a year spent in Havana, Cuba, awaiting their quota number. While in Cuba, Nathan facilitated his mother's journey to Cuba, and also attempted to help other Jews escape Germany by providing advice about Cuban visas. In the United States, Nathan worked in a variety of jobs, such as a dishwasher at the World's Fair and as a Fuller Brush man, before settling into a position at the real estate firm Singer & Bassuck.