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Eugen Neter Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 1619

Scope and Content Note

The Eugen Neter Collection focuses on the life of the pediatrician Eugen Neter. Most of the collection depicts his life and professional work. To a smaller degree the collection pertains to the work of Mia Neter, his sister-in-law. Papers of a few other family members are also present, as are clippings and a small amount of correspondence of other individuals.

Series I comprises Eugen Neter's papers. This series holds a number of his own compositions, including several short stories from his own life. Other materials in this series consist of his correspondence and articles about his life and work, including one folder of newspaper clippings in addition to unpublished articles, some of which were written by his sister-in-law Mia Neter. One folder encompasses material on the concentration camp Gurs where Eugen Neter was incarcerated; among these papers is his own lengthy report on the situation in the camp in addition to articles and correspondence by others. A few documents of Luise Neter and one folder of information on Mannheim's Eugen-Neter-Schule are also present.

The second series contains Mia Neter's papers, with a few documents of her husband Richard Neter. Much of her material consists of her correspondence, most notably with fellow social worker Ilse Wolff, with whom she discussed her postwar social work. Another folder holds a small amount of information on her social work in Germany prior to the war, while a third holds later letters exchanged with the city of Mannheim.

The final series harbors a few papers, letters or newspaper clippings of other family members.

Dates

  • Creation: 1880-1976
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1939-1974

Creator

Language of Materials

The collection is in German and Hebrew.

Access Restrictions

Open to researchers.

Access Information

Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.

Use Restrictions

There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:

Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011

email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org

Biographical Note<extptr actuate="onload" altrender="Photograph of Eugen Neter (1876-1966)" href="http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=1580186" linktype="simple" show="embed" title="Photograph of Eugen Neter (1876-1966"/>

Eugen Neter was born on October 29, 1876 in Gernsbach, in the Black Forest region of Germany. He grew up in a large family, the eighth of twelve children. In 1903 he received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Heidelberg and settled in Mannheim to work as a pediatrician, then a new specialty in medicine. In 1909 he married Luise (Liesel) Janson. They had one son, Martin (later Schaul after his immigration to Palestine).

Eugen Neter practiced medicine in Mannheim until 1938. In addition to his private practice he taught health courses at the Fröbel-Seminar in Mannheim, which prepared nursery school teachers and social workers. He also wrote a number of books in the field of pediatrics, the majority of them advice for parents, as well as editing two magazines: Das Kind. Monatschrift für Kinderpflege, Jugenderziehung und Frauenwohl and the Zeitschrift für Kinderpflege, Jugenderziehung und Auflkärung. In addition he was the head doctor at a home for unwed mothers in the Neckarau district of Mannheim.

During World War I he served for four years on the front in France, for which he received the Kriegs-Rettungsmedaille.

In 1938 Eugen Neter became president of the Jewish Community in Mannheim. On October 20, 1940 the remaining Jews of Baden and the Pfalz were deported to the Gurs concentration camp. Eugen Neter was exempted from the deportation because his wife was not Jewish, but voluntarily went to Gurs in order to support the members of his community. In 1946 Eugen and his wife immigrated to Palestine to join their son at the Deganyah Alef kibbutz. His son Schaul died defending Deganyah during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Eugen Neter remained in Deganyah, where he was known as "Saba Neter" ("grandfather Neter"), until his death on October 8, 1966.

The city of Mannheim named a school for handicapped children in his honor, the Eugen-Neter-Schule.

Extent

0.25 Linear Feet

Abstract

The Eugen Neter Collection documents the professional and personal life of the Mannheim pediatrician Eugen Neter and centers on his professional work and postwar life in Israel. Notable in the collection are the examples of his writing, the biographical articles about him and the material on the Gurs concentration camp. The collection additionally includes some of his correspondence, papers and correspondence of other family members such as Mia Neter, and newspaper clippings on other individuals.

Other Finding Aid

A 7-page item-level inventory for the collection reflects its prior arrangement.

Related Material

The LBI Library holds some books by Eugen Neter:

  1. Der seelische Zusammenbruch der deutschen Kampffront; Betrachtungen eines Frontarztes [D 639 P8 N4]
  2. Die schoensten Geschichten von Saba [PT 2627 E62 S3]
  3. La-sekhvi binah; sippurim [PT 2627 E62 L3]

The LBI Library also holds three books about Eugen Neter:

  1. Dr. Eugen Izchak Neter zum achtzigsten Geburtstag under the auspices of the Federation of Jews from Central Europa [sic] Inc [q DS 125.3 N47 A2]
  2. Dr. Yitshak Eugen Neter [DS 125.3 N47]
  3. Dr. Eugen-Jizchak Neter [PT 2627 E62 Z8]

The LBI Archives hold two memoirs by Eugen Neter:

  1. Der juedische Frontsoldat 1914-1918 [ME 1509] available online
  2. [Two Accounts] [ME 463] available online

Separated Material

Some photographs were removed to the LBI Photograph Collection.

Two memoirs were removed to the LBI Memoir Collection.

Processing Information

This collection was reprocessed in November 2012. It has an older seven-page item-level inventory, but much of the material was not in the order of this inventory and some material was not included, therefore the collection was rearranged during processing. The collection previously had seven series. The former Series II has now become Series I: Eugen and Luise Neter and former Series III has become Series II: Mia and Richard Neter. The subdivisions of these former series have been retained as individual folders. The former Series IV: Konzentrationlager Gurs has become a folder now in Series I. The former Series V: Varia has become the folder "Eugen and Mia Neter – Correspondence and Articles – Various Individuals" now in Series I. The few papers of Series VI: Nachtrag (addenda) have been incorporated into the collection, as have other materials added to the collection that were not included in the previous inventory.

During processing the very small Mia Neter Collection (AR 4210) was merged with this collection, with its contents placed in Series II.

Title
Guide to the Papers of Eugen Neter (1876-1966) 1880-1976 AR 1619
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Dianne Ritchey and LBI Staff
Date
© 2012
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.
Edition statement
This version was derived from EugenNeter.xml

Revision Statements

  • July 03, 2014 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.

Repository Details

Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States