Harry Ehrismann papers
Extent and Medium
folders
2
Creator(s)
- Harry Ehrismann
Biographical History
Harry Ehrismann (1921-2011) was born January 2, 1921 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to Harry and Andrina (Jansen) Ehrismann. He studied languages, specialized in German, and started working for the Rotterdam Municipal Police in 1938. He worked in the aliens department and was selected as one of a group of four who boarded the returning MS St. Louis in June 1939 at Vlissingen to select the passengers who would receive permission to disembark in the Netherlands. He was still working for the Rotterdam Municipal Police Alien Department when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. On May 9, 1944, he married Maria “Riet” Theresia Ehrismann, and they had five sons: Anthony, Francis, Paul, Harry, and Lawrence. On November 10, 1944, Harry was rounded up by the German occupiers to perform “defense work” and was sent to a work camp at Karlsfeld, a subcamp of Dachau and part of BMW’s München-Allach Werk 2. Harry worked in the administration of the stock rooms and was able to move freely around the city. He was able to pass food to some of the Dutch prisoners at Dachau before he was returned home in January 1945. He started writing to an American pen pal after the war, and a mutual friend who visited him in Rotterdam in 1947 eventually sponsored the Ehrismann family’s immigration to the United States in 1950.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Harry Ehrismann
Harry Ehrismann donated the Harry Ehrismann papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998.
Scope and Content
The Harry Ehrismann papers consist of an unbound scrapbook created by Ehrismann documenting the voyage of the MS St. Louis, its return to Europe, and the selection of passengers to be transferred to the Netherlands. The first folder includes correspondence; notes; a report by C.G. van Dalfsen and Gilles Hendrik van Helden (inspectors of the Municipal Police of Rotterdam) describing the selection of refugees to be welcomed by the Netherlands; a list of those passengers; a registration card for Hannelore Klein; and three name cards worn by passengers Hannelore Klein, Hilde Pander, and Martin Hess as they disembarked. Correspondence includes a photostat of a Cuban permission for immigration for Heinz Georg and Elsa Blumenstein; a photostat of a letter from the Jewish Committee in Amsterdam to the Commissioner in Rotterdam thanking the city for permitting the MS St. Louis to land; and a letter from former passengers Johanna and Fritz Feldsburg indicating they were leaving Rotterdam for Chile in May 1940. Five handwritten notes handed to Ehrismann while he was aboard the St. Louis document passengers Fritz Händler and his wife; Georg and Thea Moses; Hermann Strauss; the Meyerstein family; and Moritz, Klara, and Ursula Frank. The second folder includes clippings from Dutch newspapers documenting the return of the St. Louis to Europe, its stops at Vlissingen and Antwerp, and the transfer of Netherlands-bound passengers aboard the SS Jan van Arkel.
System of Arrangement
The Harry Ehrismann papers are arranged as a single series.
People
- Ehrismann, Harry, 1921-2011.
Corporate Bodies
- St. Louis (Ship)
Subjects
- Rotterdam (Netherlands)
- Jewish refugees--Netherlands--Rotterdam.
Genre
- Scrapbooks.
- Correspondence.
- Clippings.
- Document