Joan Salomon Family Collection
Scope and Content Note
The Joan Salomon Family Collection portrays the memorable events in the lives of Joan Salomon's parents, Otto and Helina (née Mayer) Long. Present in the collection are official documents, personal papers, notebooks, cookbooks, correspondence, photographs, biographies and drawings.
Particularly prominent in this collection is the immigration of Helina Mayer, along with the loss of her mother and sister and her restitution for loss of property. The facts of her life, along with mention of the significance of some items in the collection, will be found in the folder of biographies in Series I. This series also holds a small amount of documentation on her education and a few vital records along with a few immigration papers. Related is the folder of correspondence from her mother in Germany to Helina in New York, which documents the unsuccessful attempt to procure visas for her mother and sister and their eventual deportation. Some papers of her mother and sister, included several photographs, are located in the family papers that comprise Series II. Further details of Mayer family property may be found among the extensive restitution correspondence in Series I. A eulogy for Helina Long, in the last folder of Series I, talks about the importance of her marriage to Otto Long.
Otto (Lichtwitz) Long's life is recorded to a lesser degree. The first series includes two short biographical articles on him, including his description of the beginning of the First World War and its political and societal results; both articles are located in the folder of biographies in Series I. Marriage papers for himself and his wife Helina will also be found in Series I. Papers of several other Lichtwitz family members will be found in Series II, along with photographs. Photos include a family portrait of Otto Lichtwitz with his two sisters and his parents along with childhood photos, among others.
Dates
- 1876-2010
- Majority of material found within 1938-1967
Creator
- Salomon, Joan (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is primarily in German and English, with a small amount of Hebrew.
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<extptr actuate="onload" altrender="Portrait of Otto and Helina Long" href="http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=1525711" show="embed" title="Portrait of Otto and Helina Long"/>
Helina Long née Mayer was born March 23, 1914 in Essenheim, the daughter of Markus “Max” Mayer (1881[?]-1935) and his wife Jettchen (Henrietta) née Rosskamm. The family owned a house, vineyards, and a general store in Essenheim. In 1934, the Nazis forced them to abandon their home and store and leave Essenheim. They moved to Mainz, where Helina and her younger sister Ruth attended the Gymnasium (high school) “Höhere Mädchen Schule”. Markus Mayer died in Mainz in 1935 and was buried there in the New Jewish Cemetery.
Helina Mayer immigrated to the United States via Rotterdam in November/December 1939. Her immigration was sponsored by two first cousins, Karolina Rosskamm and Walter Roskam (Rosskamm), both of whom gave Affidavits of Support for Helina. Karolina also paid for Helina’s passage. Helina Mayer worked as a live-in companion to an elderly lady until her marriage to Otto M. Long (Lichtwitz) in 1943. In 1944 she became a Red Cross volunteer. Helina Mayer’s younger sister, Ruth, was a baby nurse in the Israelitisches Kinderheim (Jewish orphanage) in Cologne, Germany. On Sep. 30, 1942, Ruth and her mother Jettchen were deported to Treblinka, where they perished.
Otto Manfred Lichtwitz (Long) was born July 13, 1904 in Magdeburg, Germany, son of the lawyer Manfred Lichtwitz (1856-1922) and Anna née Brasch (1868-1919). Otto L. graduated from Gymnasium in 1923 and went to live with his maternal uncle in Breslau in Silesia (today Wroclaw, Poland). There, Otto Lichtwitz entered his uncle's bank as an apprentice and worked his way up. In 1929 he immigrated to the United States, starting his career as a stock exchange broker in New York.
Otto Lichtwitz's father, the lawyer Manfred Lichtwitz from Magdeburg, Germany had seven siblings, one of them being Jakob Lichtwitz, physician in Ohlau. Jakob Lichtwitz and his wife Julie née Haimann were the parents of the physician Leopold Lichtwitz in Berlin (later New York), personal physician of Albert Einstein.
Joan Salomon is the daughter of Helina and Otto Long.
Extent
0.5 Linear Feet
Abstract
The Joan Salomon Family Collection documents the immigration and marriage of Otto and Helina (née Mayer) Long (formerly Lichtwitz). The fate of family members and restitution for loss of property during the Holocaust are other prominent topics. The collection includes official and personal papers, notebooks, cookbooks, correspondence, articles, photographs and drawings.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in two series:
Separated Material
Prayer books, Tales from the Torah and Max und Moritz were removed to the LBI Library.
Lace kerchiefs, pins, a handmade Hanukah dreydel, a knife, cup and plate and medals were removed to the LBI Art and Objects Collection.
Processing Information
The correspondence of Jettchen Mayer to her daughter Helina was translated by Marianne Salinger. The collection lacked original order, so series were imposed during the processing of the collection in July 2012. Description was also added at this time.
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of the Joan Salomon Family 1876-2010 AR 25380
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Dianne Ritchey and LBI Staff
- Date
- © 2012
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from JoanSalomonFamily.xml
Revision Statements
- June 17, 2013 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository
