Beigel Family Collection
Scope and Contents
The Beigel Family Collection contains the personal post-war correspondence of Liane and Norma Bick with family members and friends as well as Liane’s official correspondence with the United Restitution Organization (URO) in the United States and in Germany, various evaluating medical officials, and German banks from 1945 to 1994. It additionally holds the restitution claims correspondence of Horst Beigel with the United Restitution Organization (URO), the German concern I.G. Farbenindustrie A.G., his lawyer in Berlin, and the Restitution Office in Berlin.
Dates
- 1945-1994
- 1945-1969
Creator
- Beigel, Liane (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is primarily in German and English, with some Swedish.
Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers.
Conditions Governing Use
There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection.
Biographical Note
Liane Melitta Beigel (née Bick) was born in Berlin, Germany on March 2, 1926; her sister Norma Evelyn Friedman (née Bick), was born November 16, 1927, also in Berlin. They were the daughters of Martin and Hildegard Bick. Liane Bick attended elementary school from 1932 to 1940; in 1941 she went on to study in a Jewish commercial school until it was closed by the Nazis. In 1941 their mother died. In 1942 Liane together with her father and sister were arrested by the Gestapo. They never saw their father again. Liane and Norma were first sent to the camp in Terezin (Theresienstadt), then to Auschwitz in 1944, and were liberated from Bergen-Belsen in May 1945 by the British army. After the liberation in 1945, Liane and Norma spent the next two years in Sweden. Liane worked first in Sigtuna in a hospital’s kitchen, and then in an office in Stockholm, having learned Swedish well. Meanwhile, Norma was recovering from tuberculosis and malnourishment in a clinic in Uttran.
Liane and Norma Bick immigrated to New York, USA in 1947. Liane Bick married Horst Beigel on June 5,1948 in New York City and in 1949 had a daughter Larraine. Liane Beigel worked part-time office jobs but was unable to keep them due to the traumatic effects of the war on her physical and psychological state. She died in 2002.
Norma Bick married Sam Friedman on Nov 19, 1950, in Brooklyn and the couple had three children: Martin, born 1951, Robert, born 1953, Andrew, born 1956. Norma Friedman died in 1997.
Horst Siegbert Beigel, known in the USA as Bert, was born June 1, 1926, in Berlin. His brother Gerald (Gerhard) Beigel, born 1928, Berlin and his father Leo Beigel, born 1901, in Kosten were the only survivors of their 35 family members, who perished in the camps. Horst Beigel attended elementary school from 1932-1938, then from 1938-1939 the Jewish commercial school in Pankow, Berlin until he was forced to quit school and report to the Employment Office to do compulsory labor until 1942. From 1942-1943 Horst lived illegally in Berlin until his arrest. From 1943-1945 he was in camp Buna in Auschwitz and was forced to work for I.G. Farbenindustrie A.G. In 1945 Horst escaped from the death march and walked back to Berlin where he remained in hiding until the end of the war. In 1946 he arrived in New York City. Horst was a successful real estate broker. He died on January 26, 2009, in Clearwater, Florida.
Extent
0.5 Linear Feet
Abstract
The Beigel Family Collection holds materials about the Beigel family members from Berlin. The collection consists of post-war personal correspondence between the various family members and documents on restitution claims. It includes original handwritten letters and papers from the time Liane Beigel (née Bick) was in Sweden, as well as official correspondence with the United Restitution Organization after she immigrated to the United States. Also included are her husband Horst Beigel’s restitution claims against Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG.
Arrangement
Arranged into two series according to document types.
- Series I: Liane Beigel, Personal Correspondence, 1945-1979
- Series II: Liane Beigel and Horst Beigel, Restitution Correspondence, 1946-2007
Separated Materials
One CD with Gerald Beigel’s interview for the Shoah Project: Gerald (Gerhard) Beigel, brother of Horst, born February 18, 1928, in Berlin, was removed from the collection and is housed in the LBI Audiovisual collection.
The book by Blocher, Amy and William R. Holocaust’s Child: Ten Stories of Children Who Survived. Mechanicsburg, PA USA, Sunbury Press, Inc., 2019 was removed from the collection and is in LBI’s library. A chapter with Horst Beigel’s interview is retained in Folder 1 in the collection.
Processing Information
Materials were rehoused into an acid-free box and folders. Series were created by gathering similar materials by topic.
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Beigel family
- Beigel, Horst
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Berliner Disconto Bank
- Clearwater (Fla.)
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Concentration camps
- Correspondence
- Emigration and immigration
- Friedman, Norma
- Holocaust survivors -- Mental health
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft
- New York (N.Y.)
- Notes (documents)
- Photographs
- Porth (England)
- Questionnaires
- Restitution -- Germany
- Sigtuna (Sweden)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- United Restitution Organization
- Uttran (Sweden)
- World War, 1939-1945
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of the Beigel Family
- Author
- Processed by Simona Sivkoff-Livneh
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository