Essays

The primary focus of the Renee Aldor Collection is on the immigration experience of Renee and Ernst Aldor and Ernst Aldor's internment in Dachau. Documentation on these subjects includes various official documents, including identification papers, immigration documentation, and some correspondence. In addition, about half of the collection consists of photographs, including family snapshots and a photo album.

The collection consists of personal papers, records from educational institutions and articles written by Robert Simon. Also included are items related to Simon’s burning of his draft card to protest the Vietnam War, including court records, personal notes and correspondence. The collection reflects the role in modern American society of a young Jew involved in liberal causes and the literary world.

This collection documents the life and activities of dancer and activist Ronya Schwaab. The collection contains material related to her activities advocating for Soviet Jews, lecturing on various topics, her trips abroad, and writing reviews for numerous books. It also includes correspondence with family, friends, and various officials in both the public and non-profit spheres of politics and business. The collection contains numerous photographs and certificates that further document her activities and accomplishments.

The bulk of this collection consists of typescripts, research articles and notes as well as newspaper articles which the researcher and historian Toni Oelsner wrote on the subject of Jews in medieval Germany. Her research deals with anti-Judaic and anti-Semitic stereotypes, as they appeared in the Christian culture of southern Germany. In particular Oelsner analyzed economic processes and their impact on and creating of anti-Semitic harassment and persecution against Jewish communities in southern Germany. Research works that drew public attention relate to anti-Judaic violent persecutions in Endingen in the 1460s.

This collection documents the lives of Vera Meyer's family members, especially her parents, Alfred and Eva Meyer, but also involving her grandparents and uncles. Prominent in the collection are the many family photographs and copies of family correspondence, including immigration and wartime letters. Other material consists of some biographical essays and a family tree.

This collection holds papers of members of the Loewenstein family, especially Walter and Karl Loewenstein. Among the papers here are examples of Walter Loewenstein's writing, documentation of life in Rietberg in Westphalia (Germany) during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and correspondence concerning the fate of several family members during this time. Papers relating to Karl Loewenstein focus on his wartime activities. The genealogy of the Brandenstein family is also represented here along with a few papers of other family members. The collection consists of unpublished manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, official and restitution documentation, notebooks and notes, genealogical research, and fliers.