Leo Abraham Collection

This collection holds the papers of Leo Abraham and his second wife from 1938 to 1983. It includes personal correspondences from friends and family, photographs, letters of restitution, and emigration documentation.

Series I holds mostly personal documents of Abraham, including letters he saved from family and friends. It also holds other personal documents belonging to Abraham and his second wife Ida, including birthday cards, his will, his passport, an inventory journal from his business, and a list of Jews from Altenkirchen and Westerwald.

Series II includes documentation pertaining to Abraham's immigration to the United States and attempts to get clearance for his family to emigrate out of Germany. It includes applications, affidavits, correspondence, and responses back from the American consulate.

Series III consists of Abraham's documentation of his efforts to collect restitution. The papers discuss requests to the French occupying forces and German government for restitution for his loss of property and health. These are mostly legal documents, correspondences with his lawyer Paul Hirsch or documented evidence pertaining to what he lost during the war and receipts of money compensated to Abraham from the Bezirkamt für Wiedergutmachung (Regional Office for Restitution) in Koblenz.

Series IV is composed of addenda added to the collection after it was first processed. Divided into two subseries, the first contains correspondence that augments the letters of Series I as well as correspondence between Leo Abraham and his cousin, who assisted him in his immigration attempts and is featured in the immigration documentation of Series II. Finally, the first subseries also holds some correspondence on the hearing loss of Leo Abraham's second wife Ida and his efforts in procuring financial support for her after she became disabled. The second subseries of Series IV holds documentation related to Leo Abraham's restitution claims of Series III. Series IV also includes two photographs of his first wife Else Abraham and their daughters.