Europe -- Emigration and immigration

This collection includes historical and genealogical information about the Weil family. Also included is correspondence regarding Bruno Weil's restitution case as well as the organization of Nazi persecution victims. World War I diaries and manuscripts of books written by Weil are also part of the collection.

This collection contains family trees, marriage records and passports from the 19th century and 1930s, as well as correspondence and several photographs documenting Jules Cortell's professional and philanthropic activities.

The Denise Wilde Family Collection holds the papers of members of the Wilde and Szymanski families, with much of the material centering on the life of dentist Herbert Wilde. The collection largely focuses on the immigration of the Wilde family, the education and Belgian dental practice of Herbert Wilde, and the restitution claims of several family members. The collection consists of official and educational documents, correspondence, photographs and family trees.

Emigration 1864-1952: This collection - encompassing about 90 years - contains papers about the situation and persecution of Jews in Eastern European countries (Russia, Poland, Roumania, Bulgaria, Lithuania). Papers describe the activities of various relief organizations. There are more than 170 papers (ca.900 pages), about half of them written in German, about 30 each in French or English, over 20 in Yiddish and some in Polish. A printed appeal of the Reichsausschuss fuer Russisch-Juedische Fluechtlingshilfe, Berlin (1929) carries among others the signatures of Leo Baeck and ALbert Einstein. (VI, 16).

This collection documents the political and professional work of left-wing pacifist and academic statistician Emil J. Gumbel (1891-1966). It includes his political and professional writings, scrapbooks of printed material about him, and subject files concerned with Nazi terror and World War Two.

This collection holds the papers of members of the Kahn and Loeb families, including Rita Kahn (née Loeb), Karl and Maria Anna Kahn and Emil and Johanna Loeb. The collection's focus is on the immigration of family members, with many official documents as well as educational and professional documents. Among the collection's papers will be found several passports along with other identification papers, letters of reference, educational certificates, ship's passenger lists, some personal correspondence and papers, biographical and genealogical notes, a newspaper clipping and other papers.

Series I contains vital documents of Ernst and Olga Waldmann as well as documents pertaining to their immigration from Vienna, Austria to the United States. Also included are Ernst Waldmann’s papers pertaining to his military service in WW I, documents about his education and career in Vienna, as well as ephemera.

The life of Ernst Hamburger was extraordinarily rich and varied; regrettably, his literary estate does not completely document it. In his flight from Nazi Germany, Hamburger had to leave all his papers behind. With a few exceptions, the same was the case in 1940. It appears he made it a practice to periodically weed his papers. At his request, a friend went through his papers after his death and destroyed two cartons full of personal and confidential material. Consequently, the remaining matter is only a fragment of a much larger life’s work.

Various biographical essays and fragments by the author, translator and teacher Paul Amann.

Personal documents of Martin Reich and his mother, Emma, describing their lives in Mannheim, Germany and Strasbourg, France prior to their immigration to the United States.

The bulk of the collection is an assembly of various reports, amounting to a document of 907 pages in ten sections: the reports originate mainly from the "Comité de Coordination pour l'Assistance dans les Camps" (CCAC; also known as "Comité de Nîmes") and other organizations, such as the “American Friends Service Committee” (AFSC) and YMCA pertaining to foreign – particularly Jewish – refugees in unoccupied France during WW II.

Photocopies of Schoenberner's literary estate, the originals of which are in possession of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University:

The focus of this collection lies on the correspondence between Lily Lösser and her daughters Yutta (Judy) and Gaby (Gabrielle) during their time of separation 1943-1946. The rest of the collection is made up of personal albums, official correspondence, documents and other material.

The bulk of the collection consist of George Eckstein's writings, but there is also correspondence as well as personal documents and materials about family members.

About half of this collection covers the genealogy of the Braunthal family in France, Austria, Poland, the Ukraine, and the United States as documented by Gerard Braunthal. The other half is devoted the restitution claims made by Frieda Silbermann (later Frances Selby), one of the Braunthal family members. Materials include genealogical tables, vital documents, correspondence, legal documents, and financial records.

The collection contains materials related to several members of the Kronstein/Neumann/Mueller families; both original documents as well as additional biographical information and excerpts from Gerda Lerner's book "A Death of One's Own". The bulk consists of correspondence, mainly written from Ilona Kronstein's exile in Nice to her daughter Gerda in the United States. In one letter, Ilona Kronstein describes a brief stay in the Gurs camp. Most of the correspondence has been summarized by John and Eva Englander, the summaries are included in the folders.

The collection contains diverse personal documents relating to Gertrude Pollatschek nee Maisel's war-time experiences including documents related to emigration including card from Antwerpsch Comiteit voor Joodsche Vluchtelingen, personal correspondence sent through German Red Cross, correspondence with American Consulate regarding visa, affadavits, photograph of actress Hilde Wegener and actor Otto Tessler, medical and tax certificates, ice cream recipes from Dr. Oetker.

Correspondence, personal documents, family tree, IDs, documents relating to emigration, school documents, US Army papers, vocational documents (Photocopies)

The records of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, now known as HIAS, comprise much of the history of HIAS through the second half of the 20th century, primarily through the files created by leadership based in the New York headquarters. Since the 1880s HIAS has worked with immigrants and refugees to help them emigrate legally from their home countries to safe resettlement in the United States and elsewhere, and they continue this work today. The records focus on files of the Executive Directors, including James P. Rice, Gaynor I. Jacobson and Karl D. Zukerman, and other material created by executive staff and by the Board of Directors. Also of importance is the work of the HIAS United States Operations Department in the New York office, handling the everyday details of immigration documentation, migration issues and resettlement activities in connection with communities throughout the United States, and in coordination with HIAS staff in overseas offices and the other departments in New York and Washington, D.C. In addition, more than 1100 files of legacy photographs have been digitized as part of this project and made accessible online.

The Hellmann-Kromwell Family Collection includes a variety of documents of genealogical interest, including wedding, birth, and death announcements and family trees, with a particular emphasis on Dr. Johanna Hellmann's life and work. Some correspondence from the physicist Lise Meitner and the education reformer Helene Lange is also present.

This collection contains records of the HIAS-ICA Emigration Association HICEM, an organization that supported the emigration of European Jews. It was created in 1927 by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA), and Emig-Direkt. Materials include minutes, correspondence, administrative records, and reports on the situation of Jews in various parts of Europe.

This is a collection of clippings pertaining mostly to German-Jewish individuals, whose life, accomplishment, or death had been noteworthy enough to trigger the interest of an editor at a newspaper or a journal. From the 1960s to the end of the 20th century, archivists at the Leo Baeck Institute perused dailies, immigrants’ journals and periodicals of special interest groups in the United States, in Israel, in various European countries and beyond to discover traces of the scattered survivors of German-speaking Jewry. Birthday celebrations, special anniversaries and obituaries as well as reports about deeds and accomplishments were clipped from the publications and collected. Today, these clippings bear testimony of all these individuals’ lives and German speaking Jewry as a whole.

Joseph Bornstein was one of the most accomplished journalists of Weimar Germany. His criticism of the political and social conditions in Germany in general, and of the practices of German justices in particular, made him a strong opponent of the right wing and populist parties long before the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933. Immediately after takeover, Joseph Bornstein left Germany and settled in France where he worked for various German exile newspapers. After the war broke out, he left France and managed to emigrate to the United States where he worked for the Office of War Information. After the Second World War he became a literary agent and writer of non-fiction books. The material in the Joseph Bornstein collection contains material from the post-war period of his life until his death in 1952. It consists of manuscripts, research notes, and professional and personal correspondence. An important part of this collection is material related to Joseph Roth that contains some of his notes, his poems, and correspondence with some of his friends and publishing houses.

Joseph Roth was one of the most prominent Austrian writers of the first half of the 20th century. Particularly his novels and newspaper essays gained him the respect of contemporary critics. Joseph Roth's papers at the Leo Baeck Institute Archives consist of handwritten and typewritten manuscripts of novels, novellas, short stories, and essays, including mostly complete manuscripts of his works Die Hundert Tage (The Ballad of the Hundred Days), Büste des Kaisers (The Bust of the Emperor), and his 'Trozki' novel Der stumme Prophet (The Silent Prophet). Joseph Roth's journalistic work is also well represented. There are a few personal items and over one hundred photographs of Joseph Roth and his wife Friederike. The Joseph Roth collection also contains correspondence with family and publishers, clippings about Joseph Roth, and reviews of his work. The addenda mostly consist of invitations to conferences and exhibitions, and scholarly articles on Joseph Roth's work and life.

The collection comprises various official documents and correspondence of Julius and Bertha Hirsch née Fenster during the interwar-period and years of World War II.

This collection consists mainly of correspondence sent to Luis Stern from Jewish refugees in France and Spain between 1940 and 1943. Having emigrated to Spain from Germany himself in the early 1930s, Stern assisted others in obtaining visas and organized other forms of relief. Correspondents include detainees in Gurs, Figuera, and Miranda de Ebro, as well as refugees living throughout France and Spain.

Official documents pertaining to Manfred Kornreich and his parents, Henoch and Scheindel (Sabina), as well as some private correspondence

The Manfred Lewandowski Collection documents the professional life of cantor Manfred Lewandowski with a focus on some of his more prominent compositions. It additionally holds some genealogical material on the Lewandowski family. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings and copies of photographs; also included are sheet music, official and professional documentation including certificates, family trees and genealogical notes, and an essay on cantorial music.

This collection documents the life and work of journalist Margo Wolff. It contains personal papers, correspondence (including a 1953 letter in the Addenda by writer Walter Meckauer to Wolff), articles, clippings, and diaries.

Clippings, correspondence, published and unpublished articles on learning disabilities and music therapy; contains testimony on her experience in the internment camp of Gurs, France.