Simon family collection
Extent and Medium
folders
oversize box
4
1
Creator(s)
- Simon family
Biographical History
Lore Deutsch was born Lore Simon on February 16, 1929 in Karlsruhe, Germany, to physician Julius Simon (1886-1953) and Gerda Simon (née Bundheim, 1906-1996). Julius’ parents were Leopold and Auguste Simon. Gerda’s parents were Elias (August 29, 1868-1942) and Martha Bundheim (November 6, 1876-1942), and she had two brothers, Erich (b. 1903) and Paul. Julius and Gerda met at a seaside resort, married in 1928, and had Lore in 1929. The Simon family immigrated to the United States in January 1939. Gerda’s brother Paul immigrated to South Africa with his wife and two children in the 1930s. Gerda’s parents and Margrieta (Griet) Bundheim van der Wijk (b. 1894) were deported on October 16, 1942 from Westerbork to Auschwitz and killed. Erich Bundheim (b. 1903) was deported on July 16, 1942 from Westerbork to Ravensbrück, but it is unclear where he perished.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lore Simon Deutsch
Lore Deutsch donated the Simon family papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2015.
Scope and Content
The Simon family papers include correspondence, passports, photographic materials, and a War Bond documenting Julius, Gerda, and Lore Simon from Karlsruhe and their immigration to the United States in 1939. Correspondence includes a 1941 letter and six 1942 Red Cross forms from the Bundheim family in Assen, Germany to the Simon family in New York as well as 1946 Red Cross letter tracing the fates of Elias, Griet, Martha, and Erich Bundheim. A 1933 German passport documents Julius and Lore Simon, and a 1938 passport marked with a red “J” documents Gerda Simon. Photographs depict Lore with her parents, her aunts Jenny Gotschalk and Rosa Benjamin, her paternal uncle Sali Simon, her cousins Lutz and Ruth Benjamin and Margot Bundheim, grandfather Elias Bundheim, and other family and friends at home, in Karlsruhe, and on vacation. The collection also includes a $25 U.S. War Bond Julius and Gerda purchased for Lore and a newspaper clipping showing a photograph of the couple buying the bond from Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
System of Arrangement
The Simon family papers are arranged as a single series.
People
- Morgenthau, Henry, 1891-1967.
- Deutsch, Lore, 1929-
- Simon, Gerda, 1906-1996.
- Simon family
- Simon, Julius, 1886-1953.
Subjects
- Germany--Emigration and immigration.
- United States--Emigration and immigration.
- Karlsruhe (Germany)
- Jews--Germany--Karlsruhe.
- Jewish refugees--New York (State)--New York.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Passports.
- Correspondence.
- Document