Gertrude and William Nagel papers

William Nagel (formerly Wilhelm Nagelberg) was born the only child of parents Fritz (1883-1960) and Helene Nagelberg (née Licht, 1891 - 1959) in Vienna, Austria, on 10 December 1914. William’s father, Fritz, was the proprietor of his own business and the family resided in Leopoldstatdt, the 2nd municipal district in Vienna. After completing secondary school William went on to study global trade at university and pursued his PhD in Economics. In July 1938 William submitted his dissertation, Über Veränderungen in der Baumwollwirtschaft Großbritanniens vom Weltkrieg bis zur Gegenwart, and became one of the few Jewish students in Austria to be awarded a doctoral degree following the Anschluss. Soon, however, the Nagelberg family decided to flee Austria for Italy. In March 1940 William left Italy for the United States sailing about the SS Vulcania. His parents, Fritz and Helene, remained in Europe. After his arrival William enlisted with the United States Army. Several months later he met Gertrude Juris, a young a Jewish refugee also from Vienna. The couple married on January 18th, 1942 in New York. The following year William became a naturalized citizen of the United States and commenced training at Camp Ritchie to become an Army intelligence officer. William would go on to serve in both the Pacific and European theaters of the Second World War. Among other duties his work included interrogation of German prisoners of war in Allied occupied territory. In Late 1945 William was discharged from the Army and returned home. After the war William resumed a career in Economics and later worked for the Department of Commerce. In 1953 his parents, Fritz and Helene, who had survived the war in Italy, joined their son in the United States. William and Gertrude went on to raise a family and later settled in Maryland.

Gertrude Juris Nagel (1921-2001) was born to parents Mendel “Max” (1885-1926) and Anna (née Pollach, 1899-1944?) Juris on 12 March 1921 in Vienna, Austria. She had one sibling, a younger brother, Kurt (1924-1945?). Max was a bookbinder who had fled to Vienna from Galicia in the course of the First World War. In 1926 he suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 42. After Max’s death Anna was left to care for their two small children. During this time Anna’s mother, Hermine Pollach (née Kohn, 1871-1944), assisted with the children. Gertrude attended school in Vienna, but with the persecution of Jewish students she was unable to continue her studies, and in January 1939 she crossed the border in to Switzerland. Within a year of her arrival in St. Gallen, Switzerland, Gertrude was joined by Kurt and their paternal uncle Joschi. Soon Gertrude had the opportunity to leave Switzerland for England. After several months working in the home of a family in Blackpool Gertrude was successful in immigrating to the United States. In the United States she joined extended relatives and found work. After arriving, Gertrude made various attempts to assist her mother and grandmother in emigrating from Austria. Unfortunately these efforts were unsuccessful and on October 10th, 1941 Anna and Hermine were deported from Vienna to the Łódź ghetto. For a time Gertrude remained in contact with her loved ones with help from relatives in Switzerland. Hermine Pollack In early 1944 this communication stopped, and Gertrude later learned that Anna and Hermine had both perished. In the immediate postwar period Gertrude also endured the death of her brother when Kurt died unexpectedly in Switzerland. After the war Gertrude settled into family life with her husband William and their children. She continued to honor the memory of her loved ones by maintaining and erecting monuments in their memory and later wrote of her experiences during the Holocaust.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Arlene Bekman

This collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Arlene Nagel Bekman in 2017. Arlene Nagel Bekman is the daughter of Gertrude and William Nagel.