Landshut Family Collection

Collection

Identifier: LBIJER 55

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Folder 1 and 2 mostly contain documents (invitations, songs, poems, speeches, wills) pertaining to occasions such as weddings, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, golden weddings, and birthdays of various family members, but also official documents such as school certificates, identity cards, police clearances etc. from the years 1833 to 1955 (including undated materials), and family correspondence (1865-1931).

Folder 3 contains materials pertaining to Selma Wittenberg née Landshut (1878-1960). It includes manuscripts by Selma Wittenberg, a notebook titled "Lehrgut Wittgenstein und die Seinen" (handwritten, 41 pp., also exists as typescript (carbon copy)) and a second notebook (handwritten, 46 pp., also exists as typescript (carbon copy)) with several short stories ("Schabbeslichter","Was ein alter Familientisch zu erzaehlen weiss", "Idill [sic] in der Kleinstadt", "Omchen, erzaehl uns ein Maerchen!", "Glauben", "Vom Birnbaum", "Tante Erna – das Sternchen", "Der Wagen", and "Ein Urteil"). The texts are written in a concentration camp on Rhode (Rodi) under Italian occupation in the summer of 1941 after the ship, which was supposed to bring Wittenberg from Triest to Palestine, was wrecked. The latter notebook consists of various memoirs including descriptions from the situation in the camp.

The file also contains correspondence of Wittenberg (1938-1941), partly drafts of letters, in which she refers to life in the camp.

Folder 4 contains a family history by Siegfried Landshut (bound print, 44+1 pp.) including a genealogical table from 1962, family photographs, and materials pertaining to the Landshut family collection by the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem.

Dates

1833-1962

Language of Materials

This collection is in German and Judeo-German.

Access Restrictions

This collection is located at LBI Jerusalem. For information on accessing the collection please visit their website: http://www.leobaeck.org/

Biographical Notes

The Landshut family has its origins in Neumark (Western Prussia) and can be traced back to the year 1350. After 1933 many members of the Landshut family emigrated and settled in Palestine, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and South America.

Siegfried Landshut, a veterinarian, was born in Neumark in 1895. He emigrated from Berlin to Palestine in 1933, settled in Kiryat Tiv'on and died in 1968.

Selma Wittenberg née Landshut was born in Neumark in 1878. Together with her brother Alfred Landshut and his wife Erna she tried to emigrate via Triest to Palestine in 1941. However, the vessel was destroyed on the way and Selma, Alfred, and Erna were brought to Rhode by Italian war ships and detained as prisoners of war. While Alfred died of hunger in the detention camp, the two women survived and settled in Palestine after the war. Selma Wittenberg died in Tel Aviv in 1960.