Skip to main content

Hildegard Josephine L. Wirtz Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 25723

Scope and Content Note

The Hildegard Josephine L. Wirtz Collection includes one series with five folders, containing letters and postcards as well as photographs and slides. Most letters and postcards were written by Hildegard Josephine L. Wirtz and document her wedding with Ulric Hellmann and then follow her immigration to the United States. Photographs and slides show mainly the Wirtz family and document the wedding of Hildegard Josephine L. Wirtz and Ulric Hellmann.

In the first folder are letters from Hildegard Josephine Wirtz in Aachen to Hedwig Hillmann her future mother-in-law in Yonkers. In 1946 Hildegard told Hedwig who of the family had survived the war and had come back to Aachen. From 1948 on the main subject of Hildegard's letters are her emigratiuon to the USA and her wedding with Ulric Hellmann. In November 1948 Ulric Hellmann travelled to Germany to marry Hildegard Josephine L. Wirtz.

The second folder holds one letter from Ulric Hellmann to his mother, in which he reports about the status quo of the Wirtz family in Germany. Two more letters came from Agnes Wirtz, who had been in relation with Hedwig's brother Paul: He committed suicide during the war, when he was traumatized and increasingly lonely, after the Hellmann family had left and there was no more international mail service to stay in touch with his friends and relatives.

The third folder includes photographs of the Wirtz family between 1910 and 1968 as well as picture postcards of Hildegard Wirtz and Ulric Hellmann from 1960 until 1982. The fourth folder contains slides showing Manfred Victor, a relative of Joanna Maria Hubertina Wirtz, Hildegard's mother, as well as other slides taken by Ulric Hellmann, showing motifs of nature and the Statue of Liberty. The fifth folder contains envelopes with stamps to represent mail in Nazi-Germany.

Dates

  • 1910-1982
  • Majority of material found within 1946-1950

Creator

Language of Materials

The collection is in German and English.

Access Restrictions

Open to researchers.

Access Information

Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.

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

Hildegard Josephine L. Wirtz from Aachen, Germany, was an only child with many aunts and uncles and a few cousins. Her family was Catholic and she attended a Catholic school. She lived in Aachen when the bombing started and the sound of bombs in the air never left her memory. Hildegard took an immediate liking to her future mother-in-law, Hedwig (Kirchberger) Hellmann, and wrote her many letters. In 1948 she married Ulric Hellmann in Aachen, and one year later she left Germany and immigrated to the United States, to join her husband Ulric Hellmann and his family. The couple never had children.

Ulric Hellmann was the son of a Jeswish family from Aachen, who immigrated to the United States in 1940.

Extent

0.25 Linear Feet

Abstract

The collection contains letters and postcards as well as photographs and slides. The majority of letters were written by Hildegard Josephine L. Wirtz to her mother-in-law, Hedwig Hellmann. The letters document her wedding with Ulric Hellmann and then follow her emigration to the United States. Photographs and slides show mainly the Wirtz family and document the wedding.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in one series.

Related Material

The collection is a part of the Hellmann-Kirchberger Family Correspondence 1710-2005, AR 25655.

Title
Guide to the Papers of Hildegard Josephine L. Wirtz 1910-1982 AR 25723
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Stephan Daiber
Date
© 2017
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.
Edition statement
This version was derived from Hildegard_Josephine_L_Wirtz.xml

Revision Statements

  • March 2015:: 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