Rolf Preuss papers
Extent and Medium
folders
7
Creator(s)
- Rolf Preuss
Biographical History
Rolf Preuss was born in 1936 in Berlin to furrier Adolf Preuss (1910-1963) and Frieda Luft Preuss (1910-1950). The family left Germany in 1939 for Shanghai, where they lived in the Hongkew district. His father worked as a musician, his mother as a barmaid in local bars and nightclubs, and he attended Jewish schools. He left Shanghai with his father in October 1947, landing in San Francisco, and settling in Portland. Adolf Preuss’s brother Lothar died in Buchenwald in 1941 and his parents and two other brothers, Philipp, Margarete, Gert, and Martin, were deported to Riga in 1942 and did not survive. Frieda Preuss’s brother, Wilhelm Luft, died at Auschwitz, and her father and stepmother, Bernhard and Bertha Luft, also perished during the Holocaust.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Rolf Preuss donated the Rolf Preuss papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1999.
Scope and Content
The Rolf Preuss papers include biographical materials, genealogical materials, notes, and business cards documenting Preuss’s childhood as a Jewish refugee in Shanghai from 1939-1947. Biographical materials include rental agreements, business contracts, a vaccination record, identity papers in lieu of passports, a receipt for the payment of a tax related to American immigration, and student records. Inquiries from the Committee for the Assistance of European Jewish Refugees in Shanghai document the efforts of Adolf and Frieda Preuss’s family members to escape Germany for Shanghai. Genealogical materials include family trees and a photocopy of Adolf Preuss’s birth certificate. Rolf Preuss’s memoirs describe his memories of his childhood in Shanghai. Notes include Chinese vocabulary translated from German, letters written on the back of a blank “Manifest of Removal into the Designated Area” form, and an address for the Oregon Émigré Committee. Business cards document bars, restaurants, and nightclubs in Shanghai.
System of Arrangement
The Rolf Preuss papers are arranged as a single series: I. Rolf Preuss papers, 1939-1999 (bulk 1939-1947)
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Rolf Preuss
Subjects
- Jewish musicians--China--Shanghai.
- Jewish refugees--Germany--Berlin.
- Jewish day schools--China--Shanghai.
- Hongkou Qu (Shanghai, China)
- Shanghai (China)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Children.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jewish refugees--China--Shanghai.
Genre
- Personal narratives.
- Document