Kurt Weinberg: Family and business papers
Extent and Medium
3 boxes
Creator(s)
- Weinberg, Kurt
Biographical History
Shortly after the events of the November Pogrom in 1938, Julius was deported to Buchenwald, an experience that caused him to suffer from nervous breakdowns for the rest of his life. As Kurt recalls, his father often needed hospitalization and electric shock treatment.
Kurt came to England through the Kindertransport in May 1939. The Jewish Refugee Committee in Hampstead Garden Suburb served as his guarantors. When he first arrived in England, he was placed in a retirement home.
Kurt’s three siblings were able to emigrate to England through the Kindertransport as well. His older brother, Bernd (born 26 June 1922), came first to England in February 1939. When the war started, Bernd, who was by that time over 16 years old, was considered an ‘enemy alien’ due to the civilian internment policies and was transported to Canada. Later he studied Chemistry in London, Ontario. In 1950 he came back to Europe and he pursued a PhD in Cologne, Germany. Later he went back to Canada, where he passed away in 1974 after a battle with cancer.
Kurt’s twin sisters, Eva and Resi Weinberg (born 26 October 1928), found refuge in England with the help of the Quaker Community in Bournemouth. When the war started, they moved to Sibford, a small village in Oxfordshire. Soon Kurt and his parents moved to Sibford and his father found a job as a gardener in Banbury.After the war, Kurt started working in a radio workshop near Charing Cross in London, where he learned how to repair radio sets. He later worked at a radio factory in Tottenham.
In 1949 Kurt returned to Germany for the first time and tried to sell his father's factory which had already been given back to him through restitution. He returned to England in 1954 and started his own tobacco import firm selling Dutch cigars, at Market Place, London. He sold the firm in 1974.
Archival History
Weinberg family
Scope and Content
This collection comprises the papers of the Weinberg family, cigar manufacturers of Werther, North Rhine-Westphalia : business papers- including contracts, consigment notes, accounts, tax details, loan contracts, land register entries for the property of the Weinberg family; family papers including marriage agreements, wills, powers of attorney, correspondence
Conditions Governing Access
Open
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Use digital version
People
- Weinberg, Bernd
- Weinberg, Resi
- Weinberg, Eva
- Weinberg, Julius
- Weinberg, Kurt
Places
- North-Rhine Westphalia
- Werther bei Bielefeld