Erna and Werner Blade Collection
Scope and Content Note
The Erna and Werner Blade Collection documents the life and work of the Erna and Werner Blade family and details 20th century Jewish life in Wuerzburg, Nuremberg, and in the United States. The collection is divided into three series.
Series I, Personal, consists of personal items and materials. It includes material from the Jewish fraternity Salia in Wuerzburg and from the German and American military. It also consists of official documents, including passports, immigration papers and restitution claims.
Series II, Writings, consists of genealogical and historical documents and personal writings, including an autobiographical text by Elizabeth Kleeman that describes the events of Kristallnacht in Wuerzburg in 1938.
Series III, Photographs and Postcards, consists of family photographs (including portraits and photographs from travels and military service) and postcards.
Dates
- 1897-1988
- Majority of material found within 1934-1988
Creator
- Diesso, Linda Blade, 1948- (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in German and English.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers.
Access Information
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
Werner Blade was born as Ralf Werner Baumblatt in Wuerzburg, Germany in 1911, the son of Felix Baumblatt and his wife Selma, née Salomon. His grandmother was murdered in Theresienstadt. Werner Blade wrote a short biography of his uncle Arthur Salomon in 1984. Arthur Salomon was a lawyer and former German soldier; he and his family were deported to Izbica, Poland. Werner Blade attended Gymnasium in Wuerzburg and medical school in Bern, Switzerland. He then immigrated to the United States in 1936 and served in the United States military and had a successful career as a psychiatrist. He was married to the piano teacher Elizabeth Kleeman until her death in 1953; Kleeman immigrated to the United States from Wuerzburg in 1939. Werner Blade later married Erna Schwab from Nuremberg, who had immigrated to the United States in 1936. His daughter, Linda Blade Diesso, was born in 1948.
Extent
0.75 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection documents the life and work of the Erna and Werner Blade family and details 20th century Jewish life in Wuerzburg, Nuremberg and in exile. It consists mainly of writings; genealogical documents; education, legal and military documents; photographs and postcards.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into the following three series:
Digitization Note
This collection was digitized and made accessible in its entirety with the exception of selections from folder 9, which are only available onsite due to copyright concerns. The oversized material was not digitized due to technical issues.
- Baumblatt family
- Blade family
- Blade, Erna
- Blade, Werner, 1911-
- Correspondence
- Freie Schlagende Verbindung Salia (Würzburg)
- Genealogical tables
- Jewish families
- Jews -- Genealogy
- Kleeman, Elizabeth, 1922-1953
- Manuscripts (documents)
- New York (N.Y.)
- Nuremberg (Germany)
- Official documents
- Photograph albums
- Photographs
- Postcards
- Psychiatrists
- Würzburg (Germany)
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of Erna and Werner Blade 1897-1988 (bulk 1934-1988) AR 25509
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Matthew Johnson and Eva Englander
- Date
- © 2013
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Sponsor
- Digitization made possible by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from Erna_and_WernerBlade.xml
Revision Statements
- July 2015: dao links and digitization information added by Leanora Lange.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository
