Ilse and Eric Dean Collection
Scope and Content Note
This collection documents fragments of the life of Ilse Glaser Dean and Eric Henry Dean as well as Wolfgang Schwerin who was the nephew of Ilse Glaser Dean. The majority of the correspondence will be found in Series I and is from Ilse Glaser Dean to Eric Henry Dean between 1952 and 1964. The collection further consists of correspondence and postcards from friends, official and personal documents as well as hundreds of photographs of Ilse Glaser Dean, Eric Henry Dean and other family members and friends.
Correspondence on the relationship between Ilse Glaser Dean and Eric Henry Dean will be found in the first subseries of Series I. The second subseries contains correspondence from Wolfgang Schwerin in Quito, Ecuador to Ilse and Eric Dean in New York. Most letters were written between 1983 and 1988. Wolfgang Schwerin was working in a pharmaceutical business in Quito. In his letters he writes about the economical and political situation in Ecuador in the 1980s but also addresses the Jewish Community in Quito. Wolfgang also mentions family and business matters.
Series II contains official and personal documents of Ilse and Eric as well as Olga Glaser. It comprises two American passports of Eric, an Ecuadorian passport of Ilse and several visas for Ecuador issued to Ilse and Eric. Furthermore it contains an official certificate dated 1912 declaring Erich Samuel Heinrich Dienstfertig as a citizen of Prussia. It also holds two cookbooks of Olga Glaser as well as two pharmaceutical recipe books.
Series III comprises a vast collection of photographs dating between the 1930s and the 1970s. Most of the photographs are portraits of the couple, family photos or travel photographs (1947-1978) taken mainly in Europe and South America. There are a number of photographs taken by the couple in Israel in May 1967, shortly before the Six-Day War.
Dates
- 1900-1989
- Majority of material found within 1950-1970
Creator
- Dean, Ilse Glaser, 1902- (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in German and English and contains a small amount of Spanish and Hebrew.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers.
Box 1, Folder 9 is not digitized due to privacy.
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="Portrait of Ilse and Eric Dean" href="http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=4577066" show="embed" title="Portrait of Ilse and Eric Dean"/>
Ilse Glaser Dean was born in 1903 in Loewen, Silesia (today Lewin Brzeski, Poland). She was the daughter of Max and Olga (née Krakauer) Glaser. Max Glaser (1869 – 1938) was the son of Eduard Glaser, a textile merchant in Loewen. Ilse Glaser and her mother emigrated to Quito, Ecuador arriving around 1944. Ilse Glaser owned a cosmetic business in Quito.
Eric Heinrich Dienstfertig (born in 1894, Breslau, today Wrocław, Poland) was the son of Ernest (?) and Regina Dienstfertig. He became a lawyer. On May 5, 1944 Eric Heinrich Dienstfertig entered Ecuador, where he worked for the company of Ilse Glaser for an indefinite time. In 1952 he left Ecuador for New York. In the early 1960s, probably in 1962, he had his name changed from Erich Heinrich Dienstfertig to Eric Henry Dean. His mother Regina was killed in the concentration camp Theresienstadt in 1942.
By 1964 Isle Glaser Dean and Eric Henry Dean were married.
Wolfgang Schwerin was the nephew of Ilse Glaser Dean. He studied in the United States of America and later became a lawyer. He lived in Quito at least since September 1952 and likely took over the company of Ilse Glaser Dean.
Extent
1.5 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection consists primarily of letters from Ilse Glaser Dean to her later husband, Eric Henry Dean between 1952 and 1964. It also contains many photographs of the Deans and their relatives and friends from the 1930s until the 1970s. Additionally it holds correspondence by Wolfgang Schwerin to Ilse and Eric Dean between 1952 and 1988 and a collection of official and personal documents.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into three series.
Separated Material
16 books were removed from the collection, including several novels and cookbooks as well as poetry books. Photocopies of their titles have been retained in the collection.
Processing Information
During the processing of the archival collection in February 2017, the collection’s contents were divided into series and subseries. 16 books of the collection were removed.
- Businesswomen
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Cookbooks
- Correspondence
- Cosmetics industry
- Dean, Eric Henry, 1894-
- Dean, Ilse Glaser, 1902-
- Dienstfertig, Regina, 1867-1942
- Financial records
- Friendship
- Glaser, Olga
- Jewish families
- Jews, German
- Latin America -- Emigration and immigration
- Lawyers
- Legal documents
- Lewin Brzeski (Poland)
- New York (N.Y.)
- Notes (documents)
- Official documents
- Photographs
- Quito (Ecuador)
- Restitution -- Germany
- Schwerin, Wolfgang
- United States -- Emigration and immigration
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of Ilse and Eric Dean 1900-1989 AR 25666
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Julia Schneidawind
- Date
- © 2017
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from Ilse_and_Eric_Dean.xml
Revision Statements
- July 24, 2017 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository