The Great Lodge of the Jewish Order, B'nai B'rith, Berlin Großlogen Deutschlands des jüdischen Ordens B'nai B'rith, Berlin (Fond 769)
Extent and Medium
6 microfilm reels (partial), 16 mm
6,062 digital images, JPEG
Creator(s)
- Grosslogen Deutschlands des jüdischen Ordens B'nai B'rith, Berlin
Biographical History
The independent Order of B’nai B’rith (Sons of the Covenant) was established in New York in 1843 by a group of German-origin Jews headed by Henry Jones. The B’nai B’rith was established to help raise the moral, spiritual, and social level of Jews, espousing philanthropy, charity, and fraternity. The organization was free of any particular political or religious ideology. The German Grand Lodge sponsored various welfare programs. It financed nursing courses and the association of Jewish Nurses, founded a Jewish orphanage and a school for retarded children in Berlin, an employment agency, and a cultural fund to support educational institutions. The German Grand lodge helped established and finance the Union of Jewish Youth Associations in Germany, published the youth journal “Wegweiser” fur die Jugendliteratur”, as well as numerous books and pamphlets for youth. Only men could be a full member of the Grand Lodge, women‘s auxiliary loges were established in beginning of 1897.
Archival History
Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ voennyĭ arkhiv
Acquisition
Forms part of the Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This archive consists of documentation whose reproduction and/or acquisition was made possible with funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Source of acquisition is the Russian State Military Archive (Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ voennyĭ arkhiv), Osobyi Archive, Fond 769. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the filmed collection via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum International Archival Programs Division in 1993, and accretion 1999.
Scope and Content
Constitution of B'nai B'rith and other materials of the Great Lodge of Germany (B'nai B'rith), including minutes, financial reports, lists of members who were lawyers, proceedings, and information for local lodges; minutes of the executive committee of the Great Lodge; minutes of a 1932 secret meeting about annual reports, charity, and other questions; communications to the Ministry of the Interior and the Gestapo; correspondence with other lodges in Europe; correspondence with individuals regarding immigration conditions in other countries, in particular Argentina; correspondence with branch lodges and other organizations regarding charitable activities; reports for Jewish hospitals in Marienbad and Bad Kissingen and with other Jewish benevolent organizations; materials of the Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der deutschen Juden, including lists of locations abroad where Jewish law students could study and other matters; proceedings and minutes of various B'nai B'rith and Masonic organizations; issues of Monatsschrift; correspondence with the Ministry of the Interior regarding abolition of the Great Lodge; information about dissolution of B'nai B'rith lodges generally. The collection also contains bulletins of the Grand Lodge; pamphlets and journals; articles from Jewish newspapers on the Yishuv in Palestine; reviews and bibliographic indexes of Jewish and German literature; issues of the Jewish youth magazine “Der Jugendbund” and the Masonic magazine “Die Bauhűtte; issues of the bulletin “Der Orden Bne Briss”, the women’s magazine “Die Frau von Heute, and other publications; a collection of depictions of the seals of Jewish lodges of America and Germany; newspaper clippings on the works of Goethe, Lessing, Zola, Wagner, and others; clippings on manifestations of antisemitism, on the activities of the committee to aid Jewish victims in Russia; and a portrait of the Order of B’nai B'rith founder, Henry Jones. Note: USHMM Archives holds only selected records.
System of Arrangement
Fond 769 (1844-1939). Opis 1-3; Delo 2,412. Selected records arranged in five series: 1.The constitution of the order "B'nai B'rith" (1935); 2. Reports, minutes and correspondence on various subjects, 1932-1937; 3. Freemason materials; 4. Issues of the bulletin of the United Lodges of Berlin, "Monatsshrift." (1931-1932); 5. Minutes of the meetings of the executive committee of the Great Lodge, and correspondence, 1930-1936. Note: Location of digital images; Partial microfilm reels #103-105, 191-192, 204; Reel 103: Image #1566-Reel end; Reel 104: Reel start-Reel end; Reel 105: Reel start-Image #476; Reel 191: Image #1760-Reel end; Reel 192: Reel start-Reel end; Reel 204: Image #1052-1074.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ voennyĭ arkhiv
People
- Jones, Henry.
- Grosslogen Deutschlands des jüdischen Ordens B'nai B'rith, Berlin
Corporate Bodies
- B'nai B'rith
- World Jewish Congress
Subjects
- Jewish organizations--Germany--History--20th century.
- Zionism--Europe--History--20th century.
- Germany--Politics and government--1933-1945.
- Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Europe--History--20th century.
- Freemasonry--Germany--History--20th century.
- Jews--Germany--History--20th century.
- Europe--Politics and government--20th century.
Genre
- Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
- Bulletins.
- Document
- Portraits.
- Pamphlets.
- Reports.
- Registers.
- Correspondence.