Pilpel family papers
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Nina Turner
Biographical History
Nina Pell Turner (1932-2015) was born on 10 December 1932 to Franz Josef and Marian (née Stern) Pilpel. Franz Josef was a chemist, and the family lived in Vienna, Austria, until the late 1930s, when following the German annexation of Austria, the family decided to emigrate. Franz Josef left first, travelling to India via China (Shanghai), and his wife and daughter later joined him in India (in either late 1939 or early 1940). The Pilpel family converted to Catholicism while living in India, and a second child, Ronald, was born there in 1942. The family remained in India until 1948, when they immigrated to England. In 1950, Franz Josef, Marian and Ronald immigrated to the United States, first settling in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Marian's cousin, Kurt Schwarz, lived. They subsequently moved to Chicago, where they settled, and changed their last name to "Pell." Nina, who remained in England, married Roy Turner in 1952, and soon thereafter, the couple also moved to the United States and joined Nina's parents in Chicago. Nina Pell Turner died in Chicago on 4 June 2015.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Estate of Nina Pell Turner
Gift of the Estate of Nina Turner, 2015.
Scope and Content
The Pilpel Family papers consist of correspondence, photographs, and documents related to the family of Franz Josef and Marion (Stern) Pilpel (later Pell), their daughter Nina, and their son Ronald, chiefly related to the family's immigration from their native Austria to India, and their subsequent immigration to the United States. Includes personal and biographical documents, correspondence between members of the Pilpel family, predominantly from the post-war era but also some pre-war correspondence, and correspondence with extended family members and friends in Australia, Israel, and the United Kingdom following World War II, including attempts to trace the fates of various family members, photographs (circa 1905-1955). Also includes photographs of the Pilpel family, from pre-war Austria and wartime India, to their post war life in Britain and the United States, as well as family trees, and a typescript testimony from Nina Pilpel Turner, describing her family's departure from Austria in 1939.
System of Arrangement
The Pilpel family papers are arranged in the following series: I. Biographical; II. Correspondence, III. Photographs, IV. Writings. The files are arranged in alphabetical order by folder title within those series.
People
- Pilpel, Franz Josef, 1905-
- Pilpel, Marian, 1905-
- Turner, Nina Pell, 1932-2015.
Subjects
- Jewish refugees--United States.
- India.
- Austria.
- Hohenems (Austria)
- Jewish refugees--India.
- Austria--Emigration and immigration.
- Jews--Austria--Vienna.
- Jews--Austria--Hohenems.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document
- Correspondence.
- Immigration documents.