Reinhold and Singer families papers
Extent and Medium
boxes
2
Creator(s)
- Reinhold and Singer families
Biographical History
Feodora Singer (1924‐2010) was born in Mannheim to Julius Reinhold (1890‐1956) and Rosa Beer Reinhold (1888‐1931). Julius Reinhold was a baker who had purchased his bakery and apartment from his wife’s mother, Flora Beer (1856‐1941). The bakery was destroyed and part of the apartment damaged during Kristallnacht. In January 1939 Feodora Singer arrived in England on a Kindertransport, joining her sister, Ruth, who was already there, and lived at the Bunce Court boarding school in Kent. Their father and stepmother, Jeanne Dornacher Reinhold (1899‐1980), immigrated to the United States in April 1939, and the girls followed in November 1939. Flora Beer was killed in an old age home in Mannheim on the day the remaining Jewish population of Mannheim was deported to Gurs. Feodora’s husband, Robert Singer (1921‐2005), was born in Vienna to film distributor Josef Singer (1885‐1947) and Adele Grünberger Singer (1894‐1977). In 1938, his family left Austria for Belgium and stayed in Brussels until he and his father were encouraged to move to the Merksplas internment camp. He immigrated to the United States in 1939 and lived with his maternal aunt and uncle Yurman before being drafted into the Army in 1942. He served with the 277th Field Artillery Battalion and fought in France and Belgium in 1944‐1945, including in the Battle of the Bulge. While in Europe, he was reunited with his parents who had fled to France when Germany invaded Belgium. His mother had lived under a false identity using a passport given her by the Langer family, his father had been incarcerated at Saint Cyprien, and both had found their way to safety on the Babut vineyard in Montpellier. He brought them to the United States in 1947.
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.
Feodora Reinhold Singer donated the Reinhold and Singer families papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2008. The accessions previously cataloged as 2003.310, 2005.115 and 2008.295.1 have been incorporated into this collection.
Scope and Content
The Reinhold and Singer families papers are comprised of biographical materials, a cookbook, correspondence, photographs, and printed materials documenting Feodora Reinhold Singer’s family in Germany, her departure via Kindertransport to England, Robert Singer’s family in Austria, his stay in the Merksplas internment camp in Belgium, and their immigration to the United States. Biographical materials include World War I era military records, education and employment records, marriage certificates, passports, identification cards, naturalization papers, and Feodora Singer’s personal narrative. Materials also include Mannheim land registry records documenting Julius Reinhold’s acquisition of his bakery and apartment building and legal documents regarding Rosa Reinhold’s estate, the restoration of the property to Julius Reinhold’s heirs through restitution proceedings, and the subsequent sale of the property. The cookbook dates from before World War II and contains handwritten recipes in German. Correspondence includes postcards and empty envelopes documenting the exchange of news among Reinhold family members and friends and a telegram, letter, and notes among the Singer family. The Reinholds’ correspondents include Julius Reinhold’s brothers Siegfried and Emil, Jeanne Reinhold’s brother‐in‐law Bernd Vorenberg, Rosa Reinhold’s aunt Sofie Stern, and a boyfriend of Feodora Reinhold’s incarcerated at Gurs. Some of the postcards document Feodora and Ruth Reinhold’s time at Bunce Court School. The Singers’ correspondence documents Robert Singer’s arrival in New York and Josef Singer’s incarceration at Saint Cyprien. Correspondence files also include promissory notes documenting debts owed to Julius Reinhold by his brother‐in‐law Max Beer and correspondence with Beer regarding his inability to pay. Photographs depict Reinhold and Singer family members and friends and document their pre‐war lives in Germany and Austria, Rosa Reinhold’s and Flora Beer’s gravestones, Josef and Robert Singer’s time at the Merksplas internment camp, Josef and Adele Singer’s stay at the Babut vineyard in Montpellier, and the families’ lives in the United States. Some of the individuals photographed include Julius, Jeanne, Ruth, and Feodora Reinhold; Josef, Adele, and Robert Singer; Adele Singer’s parents Leo and Malvine Grünberger, brother Louis, and sister Hellen with her husband Heinz; Flora Beer; Sofie Stern; Irma and Bernd Vorenberg; Charles and Helen Yurman; Madame Babut; the Langer family. Printed materials include a memorial brochure on the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht in Mannheim and a photocopy of a newspaper clipping about the Kindertransports.
System of Arrangement
The Reinhold and Singer families papers are arranged as five series: I. Biographical materials, 1910-approximately 1999, II. Cookbook, approximately 1930s, III. Correspondence, 1908-1946, IV. Photographs, approximately 1880-1976, V. Printed materials, approximately 1988-1996
Corporate Bodies
- Saint-Cyprien (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Mannheim (Germany)
- World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Jewish.
- Vienna (Austria)
- Jews--Germany--History--1933-1945.
- Jews--Austria--History--20th century.
- Jewish refugees--Austria--Vienna.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
- United States--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
- Jewish refugees--Germany--Mannheim.
- Kindertransports (Rescue operations)--England.
- Jewish property--Germany--Mannheim.
- Jewish refugees--Belgium--Merksplas.
- United States--Emigration and immigration--Government policy--20th century.
- Jewish refugees--United States.
- Montpellier (France)
- Jewish refugees--England--Kent.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Children.
- Merksplas (Belgium)
- Bakeries--Germany--Mannheim.
- Austria--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
- Jewish cooking.
Genre
- Cookbooks.
- Photographs.
- Document