Celia and Arthur Stern papers

Identifier
irn523378
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2006.36.1
Dates
1 Jan 1917 - 31 Dec 1945
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • English
  • German
  • Czech
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

folders

oversize folder

11

1

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Celia Spitz was born on November 11, 1910 to Esther and Gustav Spitz in Svätý-Beňedik, Czechoslovakia (now Hronský Beňadik, Czech Republic). Her parents managed an inn in the town, and her father passed away when Celia was three years old. Celia went to school in Vienna, Austria, living with a friend of her mothers’ and would come back home to Svätý-Beňedik in the summer. Her mother, Esther, pushed her into learning a trade, so Celia became an apprentice at a dressmaker’s shop. While she was living in Vienna, she met Chaim Arthur Stern, and in 1932 the couple were married. For several years they lived in Vienna, until the Kristallnacht in 1938, when SS officers came into their home and stole her jewelry and smashed her windows. Soon after that event, Arthur and Celia went to the American consulate to obtain visas. Both had family in the United States, and were able to get affidavits to immigrate. The couple traveled to England in 1939 and moved to New York in 1940, before settling in Los Angeles, California in 1944.

Archival History

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Peter F. Lucier

The papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by the Estate of Celia Stern Silverstone.

Scope and Content

The Celia and Arthur Stern papers comprises mainly of identification and travel documents relating to Celia and Arthur Stern, a married Jewish couple living in Vienna, Austria during the Kristallnacht, and their subsequent immigration to the United States. Within the collection are passports, identification cards, a marriage certificate and a naturalization certificate for Chaim (Arthur) and Celia Stern. Also included report cards from when Celia was attending school in Vienna, a certificate of apprenticeship for dressmaker’s guild of Vienna, and a police document pertaining to Celia. In addition are several postcards and correspondence.

System of Arrangement

The Celia and Arthur Stern papers are arranged as a single series.

People

Corporate Bodies

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.