Harriet Hermine Spielberg Collection

The Harriet Hermine Spielberg Collection consists of various official documents; certificates; reference letters and identity cards. It also includes personal items like photographs and two notebooks with handwritten recipes and comments. Another part of the collection includes reports and correspondence, mostly written by Eric (Erik) Schwarz.

Folder 1\1 contains official documents, including Harriet’s original birth certificate, which was issued beginning of February 1900. Furthermore, the folder contains the wedding certificate from her marriage with Max Schwarz. Five years after her marriage with Max she became a widow. His death after a botched operation (intestinal paralysis) on May 9th, 1927 is confirmed by a death certificate translated into English, issued July 6th, 1945. The collection contains several reference letters that provide proof of Harriet’s employment at the companies “Mazowia” (October 27th, 1927 – June 30th, 1937) and “Jarnex Holzwaren” (December 1st, 1937 – June 30th, 1938). The collection includes her German passport (Deutsches Reich Reisepass), her British national registration identity card, as well as her certificate of naturalization for the U.S., which was given to her on December 3rd, 1945. After her arrival in New York City, Harriet married Hans (John) Spielberg on April 11th, 1941. Their certificate of marriage and John Hans Spielberg’s certificate of naturalization from August 23rd, 1945, are also included in this folder. Additionally, this folder contains two other documents that concern the graduation of Edward Schottländer.

Folder 1\2 contains personal items belonging to Harriet’s family: six photographs and two notebooks with handwritten recipes and comments. The photographs depict mostly unidentified persons, as well as Harriet on four of them. There is one other photograph, showing three men wearing uniforms and one showing a middle-aged man. The notebooks are mostly written in German and include a mixture of different recipes and extra notes. One of them contains the name “Erik Schwarz” written with a pencil and other various personal notes. The second notebook contains only recipes, arranged alphabetically. Most of them are typically Austrian food, written in German but also in English.

Folder 1\3 contains correspondence mostly between Eric Schwarz and his cousin Ingeborg Rosalia Sonn, in which he writes about the history of his family and individual family members.

Folder 1\4 contains typed reports mostly given by Eric Schwarz. They all are one or two pages long. One is called “My mother speaks” and provides insight into the life of Harriet, written in first perspective. One report is about the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht). Another untitled two pages, which describe the situation of Eric and his mother living in Austria in the late 1930s, were written by Eric himself.