Werner Isenberg papers
Extent and Medium
folders
13
Creator(s)
- Werner Isenberg
Biographical History
Werner Isenberg (1911‐1994) was born in Dortmund, Germany, to Simon (1875‐1964) and Lina Isenberg (née Kleeblatt, 1881‐?). His older brother Kurt (1912‐2001) moved to South Africa in 1936. Werner immigrated to the United States in 1938 with the help of his mother’s step‐nephew Melvin Kleeblatt (1905‐1990). Werner’s parents joined Kurt in South Africa in 1939, and the three joined Werner in the United States in 1947. Werner’s wife Therese (Trudi) immigrated to the United States from Ober‐Ramstadt in 1938. Her father was murdered in Treblinka.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Werner Isenberg
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Werner and Therese Isenberg donated the Werner Isenberg papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993, 1994, and 1999. The accessions formerly cataloged as 1995.A.0189 and 1998.A.0289 have been incorporated into this collection.
Scope and Content
The Werner Isenberg papers include biographical materials and correspondence documenting Werner Isenberg’s family from Dortmund, their emigration from Nazi Germany to South Africa and the United States, and relatives murdered in the Holocaust. Biographical materials include passports for Lina and Simon Isenberg as well as certificates required for emigration. This series also includes a list of relatives of Werner and Therese Isenberg from the Isenberg, Kleeblatt, Freund, Bendorf, Hainebach, Stahl, Kahn, and Levy families who were murdered during the Holocaust. The correspondence series primarily documents Werner Isenberg’s immigration to the United States and his parents’ relocation to South Africa before World War II. Correspondence includes letters and telegrams exchanged between Werner, Kurt, Lina, and Simon Isenberg and Melvin Kleeblatt as well as official correspondence from the American Consulate in Stuttgart, the Hilfsverein der Juden in Deutschland, and the Jüdische Religionsgemeinde Dortmund. This series also includes correspondence documenting efforts by Lina and Therese Isenberg to trace their relatives both before and after the Holocaust.
System of Arrangement
The Werner Isenberg papers are arranged as two series: I. Biographical materials, 1937-1946, II. Correspondence, 1937-1946
Subjects
- Dortmund (Germany)
- Germany--Emigration and immigration--History--1933-1945.
- United States--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
- Jewish refugees--New York (State)--New York.
- Jewish refugees--South Africa.
- Jews--Germany--Dortmund.
Genre
- Document