William Werner Bloch Collection

The William Werner Bloch Collection is arranged in 13 folders. A central topic of this collection is William Werner Bloch's involvement in World War II as an American soldier; it is well represented with photographs (Folder 12), military badges and medals (Folder 13). Especially interesting is the pamphlet "Mac Gibbon's Mule Barn", an account of a comrade reflecting on the mission of the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon of the 143rd Infantry, 36th Division (Folder 13) and the correspondence with his mother and grandmother during World War II (Folder 2). The latter reflects upon various aspects of his life as a Jewish soldier, raised in Germany and fighting for the United States against the Axis powers. Amongst others, Bloch expresses in his letters that he was "overjoyed to hear the good news about that little assassination attempt on Adolf", notes that the "law of demand and supply […] applies very well in the case of eggs" in Italy, but also realizes "that war is a dirty business and there is nothing glorious, magnificent or glamorous about it." The longest of the six letters from the soldier consists of nine pages. In general, Bloch also was in correspondence with his mother and grandmother before and after the war (Folder 2).

Another topic of the collection is the striving of Bloch's mother and grandmother for compensation for lost pensions and private property in Germany after World War II (Folder 4). Furthermore, materials covering such topics as Bloch's immigration from Germany to the USA (Folder 9) and the involvement of German Jewish soldiers in World War I, namely Bloch's father Josef Bloch (Folder 9), can be found in the collection. William Werner Bloch's friendship book (Folder 10) and a letter to his mother give insight into Jewish childhood in the 1930s in Germany (Folder 2; Folder 10). There are several materials pertaining to the family of William Werner Bloch, consisting of genealogical tables of the Heimann and Silbermann families (Folder 7) and documents concerning marriages (Folder 9) as well as the death of family members (Folder 6). Some correspondence of family members is included in the collection (Folder 5); little information can be found on the chocolate factory (H. Heiman Company) owned by a relative from the Heimann family (Folder 8).

Folder 13 holds undated notes and poems by unknown authors about family members and trivia.