Emigration and immigration

Folders 13 and 14 pertain to the friends and extended relatives of Ernestine and Hans Rosenberg, respectively. The folders contain mostly handwritten correspondence about family life, particularly the dangers of wartime Europe, but Folder 14 also includes genealogical information about Hans Rosenberg’s family dating back to the late nineteenth century. Folder 15 contains a 1920s postcard from Renee née Goldschlaeger Kraessel, the maternal aunt of Ernestine Rosenberg, and sheet music from pieces that Renee wrote and co-wrote. Folder 16 contains restitution papers for Renee’s brother, Karl Goldschlaeger. Folder 17 includes personal and professional correspondence with Hans Rosenberg and typewritten lectures from Emil Fröschels, a speech and voice specialist at the University of Vienna and mentor to Hans.

The collection holds two texts about the life of Julius Sofer who worked for the Koh-i-noor button business in Vienna and Prague, as well as several pocket calendars used as diaries by him and his daughter Lisl. Their entries describe the people they met and their daily business. The entries from Lisl provide a glimpse into her preparation to emigrate as well as the start of her new life, as she called it, in the late summer of 1938.

The first three folders contain biographical material about Julius Sofer. Folder 1/1 holds a short biography of Julius Sofer which is part of the book “The boy who wore white stockings,” which tells the story of Peter Pollak, the son of Lilia Sofer and grandson of Julius. Folder 1/2 contains the transcription of Julius Sofer’s memoirs. They consist of a detailed story about his growing up in the small village Frideck, Moravia (Frýdek, Czech Republic) with a focus on his work at several businesses in Vienna. He joined the Koh-i-noor business in 1902. Folder 1/3 holds the death announcement of Julius Sofer, which was published in the newspaper Aufbau on February 1st, 1957.

Folder 1/4 contains empty envelopes which were sent from Vienna to New York during the 1940s. Most of them are addressed to Elizabeth Polk. They all have the censor stamps of the Nazi regime on them. The letters can be found in the Grace Polk Family collection addenda, AR 25489. Additionally, the folder includes a message written in 1946 to Julius Sofer regarding the transport of the belongings of Katharina Sofer in 1940.

Folder 1/5 holds some documents related to the S.S. President Roosevelt which traveled from Hamburg to New York in 1938. Hans-Gunther Pollak and his wife Elizabeth (Sofer) were onboard. Included are a list of passengers and the menu of the Gala dinner, as well as a deck plan.

Folder 1/6 holds two saving books from Harry George and Elizabeth Polk. They show the initial deposit of $4,340.- which was transferred from a Swiss account by Julius Sofer to each of his children. The entries show that it was used to cover large expenses, but also some larger withdrawals, which were probably used to pay for affidavits and later for a down payment for a house. Moreover, it includes the membership card for the Humanitas Lodge (Free Mason Lodge) of Julius Sofer and two printed address books of members of the club including Julius Sofer.

Folder 1/7 holds two address books. One includes many names from all over Europe but also notes from presumably Julius Sofer’s work around 1900. The other one was used in New York.

Three folders hold pocket calendars that were used as diaries. Folder 1/8 holds three pocket calendars. One was used by Julius Sofer, and two are from Lisl. The notes in the 1936 calendar describe the weekly meetings of Misses Sofer and Mister Pollak (Lisl’s later husband Hans-Gunther Pollak / Harry Polk) as well as their engagement in October. Folder 1/9 holds four pocket calendars that were used as diaries in 1938 and 1939. According to notes two of them were used by Lisl. She wrote about her immigration to New York under the title “start of a new life” in the calendar for 1938. Folder 1/10 holds two pocket calendars that were used as diaries by Julius Sofer in 1941 and 1944 containing aphorisms and addresses. The diary from 1944 also shows his finances from 1946 to 1948.

Series II provides detailed genealogical information collected by Louis S. Wolf about the Eckhaus and Wolf families and their ancestors in the form of printed and handwritten family trees and drafts as well as biographical notes about individual family members. The collected genealogical information goes back to as far as 1601. The most complete family trees derive from Louis' paternal ancestor Abraham Wolf and his maternal ancestor Joseph Eckhaus. The genealogical information is supplemented with copies of various vital documents.

The series contains a brief summary about the life of the Wolf family in Kaiserslautern, Germany written by Louis S. Wolf in folder 1/11. He describes their dairy business and properties, and how more and more members of the extended family emigrated to Argentina and the United States due to Nazi persecution. Shortly after the sudden death of Louis' father Willi at the age of 29 in 1936, Louis, his mother Alice, his sister Doris and his uncle Albert were the only members of the family still living in Kaiserslautern. After selling some of their properties to a Nazi officer, Albert managed to organize their escape. At the end of his report, Louis mentions that during a trip to Kaiserslautern in 1994 he learned that the former property of his family between Hühnerstraße and Eierstraße had become part of a shopping mall.

This introduction to the family's history is followed by various computerized and handwritten family trees and drafts in folder 1/11. The genealogical information goes back to as far as 1601. However, the most complete family trees derive from Louis' paternal ancestor Abraham Wolf and his maternal ancestor Joseph Eckhaus, who were both born in 1774. The family trees are complemented by brief genealogical profiles about various members of the Wolf and Eckhaus families in folder 2/2 and numerous documents of Louis Wolf's genealogical research and its results in folders 1/8 to 1/10 and 1/12. Folder 1/10 holds correspondence between several municipal authorities in Rhineland-Palatinate and Louis S. Wolf, his mother Alice Wertheimer and his sister Doris Loeb. The letters contain information about the Wolf family and the Strauss branch of the Eckhaus family. The letters to Louis from 1994 contain information about the Wolf family. Documents such as copies of vital records that were originally attached to these letters can be found among additional similar records in folder 1/8. Further correspondence in folder 1/10 pertains to Louis' visit of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany in the summer of 1994. Included are copies of his letters announcing his trip to the mayor of Kindenheim and further requests as well as thank you notes and correspondence between Louis and the family of his former neighbor whom he met by chance in Kindenheim. During this trip, Louis also visited the graves of many of his ancestors. Photographs showing Louis and various tombstones can be found in folder 1/15. Folder 1/10 also holds a summary about the history of the Jewish Community in Kaiserslautern from 1242 to 1965 by the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora (today Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot) in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Folders 1/8 and 1/9 comprise copies of vital documents about members of the Eckhaus and Wolf families and their ancestors. The records in folder 1/8 are copies of birth, marriage and death certificates from the years 1830 to 1907. Most of the copies are dated, and some of them officially certified by the municipalities in Germany that issued them.

In 1995 Louis Wolf engaged Wolfgang Heiss, a genealogist in Germany, to conduct research in local archives about the Eckhaus family and their ancestors such as the Decker, Straus (Strauss, Strauß) and Trifus families. The results of this research can be found in folder 1/9. It holds vital records of various family members from the years 1803 to 1867. The photocopies of these documents are accompanied by informational overview pages created by Wolfgang Heiss. Furthermore, correspondence between Louis S. Wolf and the researcher is included.

This series also presents an original Jewish marriage contract – a ketubah – from 1840. The document is in fragmentary condition and presumably pertains to the marriage of Aron Ben Joseph and Hadas Bat Aharon. However, it remains unclear whether or how the mentioned persons are related to the Wolf and Eckhaus families.

Finally, folder 1/7 holds printouts of information and documents retrieved via ancestry.com by LBI staff members in 2019. Contained is information about Alice Wertheimer's (formerly Wolf, née Eckhaus) application for United States citizenship and the passenger list of the ship S.S. Volendam on which Louis S. Wolf and his family arrived in the United States in 1938.