Nuernberg-Fuerth Reunion Collection
Scope and Content Note
This collection consists mainly of materials related to the reunions of former Nuremberg-Fürth Jewish community members. Reunion programs and correspondence make up the bulk of the collection. Other materials include lists of those deported to concentration camps from the Nuremberg and Fürth Jewish communities in the 1940s, a 1938/5699 bulletin created by the Fürth Jewish community for Rosh ha-shanah, photocopies of correspondence from Henry Kissinger concerning his inability to attend the first reunion, and various clippings and ephemera related to surviving members of this community. Materials related to the 50th anniversary reunion include notes and a speech by LBI archivist Diane R. Spielmann, a photograph of Frank Harris, correspondence, and a list of the content of the six videotapes that have been removed to the LBI A/V collection.
Dates
- 1938-2006
Creator
- Harris, Frank A., 1922-2017 (Person)
- Spielmann, Diane R. (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in English and German.
Access Restrictions
This collection is 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 "Request" button.
Historical Note
In 1977, Frank A. Harris initiated the regular publication of a newsletter in which former members of the Jewish communities of Nuremberg, Germany and the nearby city of Fürth shared stories of their personal experiences and the directions that their lives took after they escaped Nazi persecution. Beginning in 1978, hundreds of former members of the Nuremberg-Fürth Jewish communities and their families have come together in reunions throughout the state of New York.
Frank A. Harris was born Franz S. Hess in 1922 in Fürth, Germany. His father was imprisoned in Dachau after Kristallnacht, and Frank was sent via Holland to England as part of a Kindertransport. He and his parents were reunited and immigrated to the United States in 1940, eventually settling in the Washington Heights section of New York City. Frank served in the U.S. Army from 1943-1945. After returning to the United States, he worked as a chef and the director of food services for the Norwalk Public Schools. After promising Liese Fichtelberger Daniel, a friend and former classmate of the Fürth Jewish school, to reunite the Nuremberg-Fürth Jewish community, Frank began organizing newsletters and reunions, which have continued for decades and brought together up to five generations.
Extent
0.25 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection consists mainly of materials from the reunions of former Nuremberg-Fürth Jewish community members. These materials include programs, invitations, correspondence, a few notes, a speech, a photograph, and clippings related to various members of the former Nuremberg-Fürth Jewish community. Other materials include a 1938 Rosh ha-shanah bulletin from Fürth and lists of Nuremberg and Fürth community members deported to camps in the 1940s.
Arrangement
Materials are ordered chronologically.
Digitization Note
The collection was digitized and made accessible in its entirety.
Separated Material
Six video tapes of the 1988 Nuremberg-Fürth Reunion were separated to the LBI A/V collection. Commemorative objects (plaque, framed print, medals) from the 1988, 1992, 1996, 1999, and 2005 reunions were removed to the LBI Art and Objects Collection.
Processing Information
Duplicates were removed. Materials were arranged into folders. Adhesive notes attached to some of the materials upon donation were removed. Photocopies of these notes were made and placed in the original notes’ place. Newsletters of the Nuremberg-Fürth communities found in this collection were donated to the Center Genealogy Institute to add to their existing collection.
- Title
- Guide to the Nuernberg-Fuerth Reunion Collection 1938-2006 AR 6654
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Leanora Lange
- Date
- © 2013
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Sponsor
- Described, encoded, and digitized as part of the CJH Holocaust Resource Initiative, made possible by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository
