Mosheim and Marx families papers
Extent and Medium
boxes
2
Creator(s)
- Mosheim family
- Marx family
Biographical History
Inge Moss was born Ingeborg Klara Marx in Munich in 1921 to Karl Marx (1885‐1938) and Else Zenner Marx (1894‐1941). She immigrated to the United States in May 1940, where her uncles and aunt Bernhard and Adolf Marx and Justin and Trude Zenner had already arrived. She lived and found work in New York City. Karl Marx had died of natural causes in 1938 in Munich, and her mother remained in Germany to care for his ailing mother, Pauline Mayer Marx. Else Marx was deported to Riga on November 20, 1941, but her transport was stopped near Kovno, where she was executed by Einsatzkommando 3. Inge’s grandparents, Pauline Marx and Lina and Josef Zenner, were deported to Theresienstadt in the spring of 1942, where they died of illness and starvation in early 1943. Inge met Herbert Mosheim at a New York City social club for new Americans and were married on March 28, 1942. Their daughters Susan and Nancy were born in Vermont in 1944 and 1946. At some point the family changed their last name to Moss.
Herbert Moss (1908‐1978) was born Herbert Mosheim in Vlotho, Germany to Levi Mosheim (1863‐1935) and Sophie Loeb Mosheim (1877‐1941), who owned a paper manufacturing factory. He was arrested following Kristallnacht and held at the Buchenwald concentration camp for two months before being released on condition that he would leave Germany within six months. He secured admission to the Kitchener Camp for displaced persons in England, where he arrived in 1939. In 1940 he received his visa and immigrated to the United States where he joined his cousins, the Plaut family, in New York City. He began working for Hudson Pulp and Paper Company in New York before being transferred to their mill in Bellows Fall, VT. His sisters and brothers‐in‐law Ilse and Julius Charig, Hilde and Walter Kohlberg, and Gerda Mosheim, his nephew Joel Kohlberg, and his Grundmann cousins and nieces were deported to the Warsaw Ghetto in April 1942 and never returned. Magdalene Grundmann died at Auschwitz. His aunts Alwine and Thekla Mosheim, and cousin Edith Stamm were also deported to Warsaw and never returned. His uncle Moses Mosheim was deported to Theresienstadt in July 1942 and died there in January 1943. His cousin Hermann Mosheim is believed to have died in a concentration camp in Yugoslavia. Herbert met Inge Marx at a New York City social club for new Americans and were married on March 28, 1942. Their daughters Susan and Nancy were born in Vermont in 1944 and 1946. At some point the family changed their last name to Moss.
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.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received this collection from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives branch in August 1999. The Photo Archives branch received it from Susan Moss Alterman in two shipments in 1999.
Scope and Content
The Mosheim and Marx families papers measure 1.0 linear foot and date from 1914‐1952, 1988, 1994, and 1999. The collection contains biographical materials, correspondence files and translations, Inge Moss’s early life story, photographs, clippings, and research files documenting Herbert and Inge Moss’ immigrations to the United States, the unsuccessful immigration efforts of the families they left behind in Munich and Vlotho, Germany, and efforts to find out what happened to them. Biographical materials document the education and immigration of Inge Marx and Herbert Mosheim. Materials include student records, a death announcement for Karl Marx, a medical prescription, a packing list, passports, a certificate from the Kitchener Camp, and a menu from the S.S. Washington. Correspondence files include Marx and Mosheim family correspondence. Marx family correspondence is addressed to Inge Marx in the United States primarily from her mother, Else, but also from her grandparents, Pauline Marx and Lina and Josef Zenner, and from family friends Rosa Hafner and Elise (Lisi) Hetschel. Mosheim family correspondence includes letters addressed to Herbert Mosheim in the United States from his mother, sisters, brothers‐in‐law, cousins Karola Kattzenstein and Dora, Erich, and Magdalene Grundmann, and friends. The letters document daily life in Munich, Vlotho, Lauenforde and Köln, the families’ moves from house to house as they were forced to sell or give up their homes, and their unsuccessful efforts to immigrate to the United States. Most of the original German letters in the correspondence series have been translated by Inge Moss, and those translations were assembled into binders along with annotations, biographical sketches, Inge Moss’s story of her childhood in Germany, and reproductions of family photographs by Susan Moss Alterman in 1999. These materials also includes translations of love letters from Herbert Mosheim to Inge Marx dated 1941‐1942 which are not included among the original German correspondence in this collection. The love letters describe wedding plans, daily life, the couple’s status and experiences as German immigrants, and their efforts to aid their families’ immigration. Photographic materials include a portrait of Herbert and Inge Mosheim, a Mosheim family album, and a portrait of Max Picard, the Marx family’s physician. The family album includes photographs of the Vlotho family home and paper factory, family members, Herbert at college, vacations, Herbert and his friends at the Kitchener Camp in England, and Sophie and Levi’s gravestone in Vlotho. A clippings file contains information about Susan Moss Alterman’s participation in the 50th anniversary commemoration of Kristallnacht in Vlotho, Germany with her mother and sister. A research file contains photocopies of materials at the Munich City Archives including the 1941 transport list bearing Else Marx’s name, passport applications for Inge Marx, Else Marx, and Pauline Marx, and a translation of SS Standartenführer Karl Jäger’s December 1, 1941 report “Complete list of executions carried out in the area up to 1 December 1941,” printed from the internet.
System of Arrangement
The Mosheim and Marx families papers are arranged as five series: I. Biographical Materials, 1929-1940, II. Correspondence, 1940-1952, III. Translations, 1999, IV. Photographic Materials, circa 1914-1999, and V. Clippings and Research, 1988, 1994
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Susan M. Alterman
Subjects
- Vlotho (Germany)
- Holocaust victims' families.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Jewish families--Germany--Vlotho.
- Jews--Germany--History--1933-1945.
- Jewish refugees--Germany.
- Munich (Germany)
- Jewish families--Germany--Munich.
- Personal narratives.
Genre
- Document
- Photographs.