Bier family papers
Extent and Medium
folders
7
Creator(s)
- Bier family
Biographical History
Julius Bier (1868-1927), one of eight sons of Maximilian Bier (1839-1908) and Auguste Hess (b. 1845) married Lina Marxsohn (b. 1874) in Frankfurt am Main in 1894. Julius was a wealthy businessman in Frankfurt and Berlin, and they had two sons, Norbert (1895-1942) and Siegfried (b. 1897). Norbert married Else Gut (later Else Loewenthal-Gut, b. 1906 in Zurich) in Berlin in 1926. Their son Julius was born in 1927. They moved to France in 1933 to open a linen store. They immigrated to the United States with 1941. Siegfried lived in Berlin since 1929, and fled Germany in late 1938 for France. He was interned at Camp du Ruchard in 1939 and then joined the French Army. After the British Expeditionary Force left France in 1940, he was discharged and fled to England on board a Belgian freighter. After landing in Falmouth, he was sent to several prisons as an enemy alien, including the Sefton internment camp until spring 1941.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Serafina Bier
Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by Serafina Bier.
Scope and Content
The collection contains correspondence, identification papers, and a photograph documenting the Holocaust-era experiences of the Bier family, originally of Berlin, Germany, including Siegfried Bier, who fled Germany to France and then to England where he was interned as an enemy alien in the Sefton internment camp. Consists of pre-war family papers relating to Siegfried’s parents Julius and Lina Bier, wartime-era documents related to Siegfried’s brother Norbert and his wife Else, Siegfried’s internment in Sefton, and restitution claims. Also included is a postcard sent from Amalie Bier who was interned in Theresienstadt to Julius’s brother Eduard Bier in Berlin, 1944.
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged as a single series.
People
- Marxsohn, Lina, 1874-
- Bier, Siegfried, 1897-
- Bier, Julius, 1868-1927.
- Bier family
- Gut, Else, 1906-
- Bier, Norbert, 1895-1942.
Subjects
- Berlin (Germany)
- Jews--Germany--Berlin.
- Concentration camps--England.
- Sefton (England)
- Refugees, Jewish--England.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document