Herbert Strauss Addenda
Scope and Content Note
The Herbert Strauss Addenda contains subject files and writings from Strauss’ position as the executive director of the American Federation of Jews from Central Europe. These include correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings, newsletters and pamphlets, and writings, including manuscripts and dissertations in the field of German-Jewish history and related topics.
Materials pertaining to the American Federation of Jews from Central Europe include correspondence, proposals, and notes for a history of the Federation, as well as the Federation’s newsletters. Herbert Strauss was also the founding director of the Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration. The subject files include contracts, correspondence, resources, and notes for two of the Foundation’s publications, Jewish Immigrants of the Nazi period in the USA and the International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigres, 1933-1945.
Dates
- 1933-2000
Creator
- Strauss, Herbert Arthur (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in English and German, with some Spanish.
Access Restrictions
This collection is open to researchers.
Access Information
Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.
Biographical Note
Herbert Arthur Strauss, historian, academician, and teacher, was born on June 1, 1918, in Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany. He was the son of a Jewish machine-tool salesman, Benno Strauss, and Magdalena (Hinterneder) Strauss, who was Roman Catholic. The family, including an older brother, Walther, and a younger sister, Edith, followed Jewish practices.
After leaving the Neues Gymnasium in Würzburg in 1935, Strauss moved to Berlin in 1936, where he was responsible for the administration of a Socialist Zionist youth group and enrolled in a program of Jewish graduate study. He studied German history and theology at Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums starting in 1938. Between 1940 and 1942, he served as an auxiliary rabbi for the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin.
When the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums was closed down by German authorities in 1942, Strauss and his future wife, Lotte (Schloss), went into hiding, where they remained until June 1943 when they escaped to neighboring Switzerland. Upon reaching Switzerland, Herbert and Lotte were briefly interned in refugee camps. In late 1943, Herbert Strauss began his studies at the University of Bern, where he concentrated on European History.
Herbert and Lotte were married in 1944. After Herbert received his doctoral degree in 1946, the Strausses immigrated to the United States, where Herbert Strauss initially served as an instructor at the City College of New York, eventually becoming a full professor.
In New York, Herbert became quite active in German-Jewish communal affairs. He was a member of several charitable and communal Jewish organizations, most notably the American Federation of Jews from Central Europe, of which he was the Executive Director. The AFJCE was an organization that helped German-Jewish immigrants acclimate to life in the United States and advocated on their behalf. He was also the founding director of the Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration, in 1971. In 1980, Herbert Strauss helped to found, and became the Director of the Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung at the Technische Universität, Berlin. The Center was dedicated to the study of anti-Semitism and to research on the migration of German-Jewish intellectuals during the Nazi period. His seminal work, published under the auspices of the Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration and the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich, Germany, was the two-volume International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigres, 1933-1945 (1983).
Dr. Strauss was a prolific writer on a variety of topics such as acculturation and assimilation, ethnicity, German-Jewish relations and history, and immigration. Additionally, he was a regular contributor to a number of professional journals and magazines, where he published his articles and reviews. He was also an editor, translator, and a member of numerous academic panels.
Dr. Herbert Strauss died in New York City on March 11, 2005 at the age of 86, leaving behind his wife, Lotte, and their daughter, Jane.
Extent
2.75 Linear Feet
Abstract
The Herbert Strauss Addenda contains subject files and writings from Strauss’ position as the executive director of the American Federation of Jews from Central Europe. These include correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings, newsletters and pamphlets, and writings, including manuscripts and dissertations in the field of German-Jewish history and related topics.
Arrangement
The collection was arranged in two series:
Separated Material
Books and periodicals have been removed to the LBI Library.
Processing Information
All books were removed from the collection to the LBI Library. Periodicals held by the Leo Baeck Institute or another partner of the Center for Jewish History were discarded; periodicals not held by LBI or a partner were removed to the LBI Library. Periodicals that filled in the gaps in other partners’ holdings were offered to those partners. Audiocassettes and videocassettes were removed to the LBI Audiovisual Collection. All microfilm duplicates and drafts for the International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigres, 1933-1945 were discarded. Materials were rehoused in archival boxes and folders. When present, folder titles were maintained.
- American Federation of Jews from Central Europe
- Antisemitism
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Germany
- Germany -- Emigration and immigration -- History -- 1933-1945
- Jewish refugees
- Jews -- Persecutions -- Germany
- Jews -- United States -- Social life and customs
- Jews, German
- New York (N.Y.)
- Newsletters
- Reports
- Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration
- Strauss, Herbert Arthur
- Writings (documents)
- Title
- Guide to the Herbert Strauss Addenda undated, 1933-2000 AR 25728
- Author
- Processed by Rachel S. Harrison
- Date
- © 2017
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
Revision Statements
- December 2018:: Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository