Tremolo style Opera harmonica owned by an Austrian Jewish refugee

Alfred Berg (1924-2013) was born in Vienna, Austria, to Julius and Frieda Berg. Frieda was born in Poland, and immigrated to Vienna as a young girl with her family. Alfred’s father was born in Narajow, Germany (now Porajów, Poland) and was an orphan with no immediate family. He fought for Germany during World War I and afterward he moved to Vienna where he met his future wife. Alfred had a sister, Charlotte, who was six years younger than him. Their father worked as a tailor, Alfred and Charlotte went on picnics and swam in the Danube, the family had a nice, comfortable life. On March 13, 1938, Austria was annexed into Germany in what became known as the Anschluss. German authorities quickly created new legislation that restricted Jewish life. Jews were arrested, required to report their assets, and segregated in public places. After the Anschluss, Alfred was attacked by other boys for being a Jew. During Kristallnacht, Alfred’s father was arrested and taken to the police precinct where his head was shaved, he was only released because he was the commanding officer’s tailor. After Kristallnacht the Bergs began looking for ways to escape Austria. In preparation for immigration to Palestine, Alfred began to learn how to farm. In early 1939, a Jewish couple from Philadelphia, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, with support from the president of the Independent Order of Brith Sholom, Lewis Levine began developing a plan to rescue Jewish children inside Nazi Germany. They were able to obtain 50 U.S. visas and then travelled to Germany in April to select the children for rescue. Upon their arrival the Krauses were told by the Consular Chargé d'Affaires that there were over 200 eligible children in Vienna, and they immediately left for the Austrian capital. In May, Alfred’s sister Charlotte was selected for rescue. Just days before they were to leave Vienna, one of the children, Heinrich Steinberger became ill. Because he was too sick to travel, the Krauses chose Alfred to take his place. Charlotte and Alfred boarded a train to Berlin with the rest of the children on May 21. They arrived in Berlin later that day and were scheduled for physical examinations and final processing the following day. From Berlin they went to Hamburg, Germany, and boarded the SS President Harding and left for New York on May 23. They arrived on June 3 and were taken to the Brith Sholom retreat in Pennsylvania. While there they took courses in civics and US history, as well as English-language training. After the retreat, Charlotte lived with distant relatives in Brooklyn, NY and Alfred stayed with a foster family in Jersey City, NJ. Charlotte was distraught; she missed her mother and was not eating. Alfred visited his younger sister every weekend until their parents emigrated in December, 1939. Reunited, the family settled in Brooklyn where Alfred’s father worked for 3G, making suits. On June 11, 1943, Alfred was drafted. He joined the Navy Seabees (Construction Battalion) as a private and was sent to Okinawa, Japan. However, before he arrived in Okinawa, the war ended. While in the navy Alfred was picked on by the other sailors because of his Jewish heritage. After his service ended, Albert returned to New York where he met Marianne Salomon, a fellow Holocaust survivor. Marianne emigrated from Germany to Iowa with her parents in 1938. They lived in Iowa for five years and then moved to New York. In 1953 Alfred and Marianne married. Alfred became a stock broker and Marianne worked as a legal secretary. The couple had two children and three grandchildren and lived in New Jersey.

The harmonica was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2015 by Marianne Salomon Berg, the wife of Albert Berg.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Marianne Berg