Fanny Auerbach papers
Extent and Medium
folders
4
Creator(s)
- Fanny Auerbach
Biographical History
Fanny Auerbach and her husband John, were German Jews living in Cologne, Germany. As John attended dental school, Fanny worked at the Abram Frank Haus, a Jewish orphanage. During that time, Fanny looked after Malchen Belcher, a young girl whose leg was amputated when she was 11. Malchen and her sister Selma were being raised by only their father, and Fanny helped in looking after them. In 1935, upon John’s completion of dental school, the couple left Germany for Palestine, and later immigrated to the United States, where they lived in Berkeley, California. While living in the United States, Fanny stayed in contact with Malchen, who was shipped to the Warsaw ghetto with her father and sister in 1941. Fanny received several letters from Malchen, until they abruptly stopped in the winter of 1941. Fanny presumes Malchen’s family died of starvation in the Warsaw ghetto. Malchen was 19 years old.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
The Fanny Auerbach papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993 by Fanny’s daughter, Marian Shapiro.
Scope and Content
The Fanny Auerbach papers contain primarily correspondence between Fanny, a German Jew who escaped Germany in 1935, and Malchen Banner, a young woman who Fanny helped raise while Fanny worked at an orphanage in Cologne, Germany prior to her emigration. Malchen was subsequently deported to the Warsaw ghetto, where in her correspondence to Fanny, she describes the hardships of her life there before her letters abruptly end. Also included are correspondence with Theresa Wallach, the administrator from the orphanage where Fanny had worked, photographs, a poem from another orphan, and a newspaper article. The Fanny Auerbach papers contains primarily letters between Fanny and a young girl named Malchen, who Fanny used to help look after when she was younger. The letters were sent from the Warsaw ghetto, where Malchen, her sister Selma, and her father were shipped to in 1941. The letters describe the terrible conditions the family lived in, including their struggles with acquiring money for food and warmth with the onset of winter. Other letters come from Theresa Wallach, who was the administrator of the Abram Frank Haus, and disappeared during the war. In addition are photocopies of those letters, photographs of Malchen when she was younger, a color self-portrait drawn by Malchen, and several photos of Fanny and the orphanage. Also included is a newspaper article containing a letter by Malchen to Dr. Roseno, the doctor who amputated her leg, and a poem written by Lore, an orphan from the Abraham-Frank-Haus in Cologne.
System of Arrangement
The Fanny Auerbach papers are arranged as a single series.
People
- Banner, Malchen.
- Wallach, Theresa.
- Banner, Selma.
- Auerbach, John.
- Auerbach, Fanny.
Subjects
- Holocaust victims.
- Cologne (Germany)
- Jews--Poland--Warsaw.
- Jews--Germany--Cologne.
- Orphanages--Germany--Cologne.
- Jewish ghettos--Poland--Warsaw.
- Warsaw (Poland)
Genre
- Photographs.
- Correspondence.
- Poems.
- Document