Katz family papers

H.W. Katz was born Herz Wolf Katz on December 31, 1906 in Rudki in the Austro-Hungarian empire (now Rudky, Ukraine). During World War I, the family moved to Gera, Germany. In 1932, Katz became the editor of "Die Welt Am Montag," a left-leaning magazine in Berlin. In May 1933, due to his political leanings and the fact that he was Jewish, Katz fled to Lyon, France, where he met his wife, Friedel Kramer, a refugee from Heilbronn. They married in 1936, and Katz continued his work as a journalist, though he was forced to take other jobs as well. Their daughter, Eve, was born in Paris on July 2, 1938. When the war began, Katz joined the French Foreign Legion, and was in uniform when the German Army invaded France. Friedel and Eve fled south from Paris, crossing into the free zone and reuniting with Katz. They traveled to Marseilles where they were assisted by Varian Fry, who knew of Katz's journalism work, as well as Katz's two novels, which were published in the United States. The family left Marseilles in March 1941 and boarded the SS Guine in Lisbon, arriving in New York on April 15, 1941. Katz changed his name to "Henry William" and went by the nickname "Bill." He found himself unable to write for an American market, but went into factory work, eventually becoming vice-president of a small manufacturing company. Bill Katz died on June 6, 1992.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Eve Katz donated the Katz family papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1995.