Levy family papers
Extent and Medium
boxes
oversize boxes
oversize folders
2
2
3
Creator(s)
- Levy family
Biographical History
Alfred Levy (1888-1962) was born on 15 November 1888 in the Fraulautern neighborhood of Saarlouis (present day Saarlouis, Germany) to Daniel and Joséphine (née Schmitt) Levy. He had one sister, Julie. Alfred was a veteran of World War I, and studied law afterwards. Meta Mayer Levy (born Meta Eve Mayer, 1891-1969) was born on 1 January 1891 in Saarlouis to Eduard (b. 1857) and Auguste (née Herz) Mayer. She had two sisters, Ella (1888-1918) and Olga (later Olga Scherman,b. 1893-1980). Ella died in 1918 of the Spanish Flu. Olga married Richard Scherman (1897-1987). They had a son named Rolf (b. 1928) and immigrated to the United States. Alfred and Meta married in 1924 in Saarlouis. Their daughter Marlyse (born Mary Louise Levy; later Marlyse Kennedy) was born in 1925, and their son Theo (1932-1998) was born in 1932. The family lived in Saarlouis where Alfred was a judge and Meta worked with her family’s shoe store business. After the citizens voted in 1935 for independent Saarland to rejoin Germany, the Levys decided to immigrate to Luxembourg later that year to flee the growing Nazi presence. That same year, Marlyse began attending school in Thionville, France. After Luxembourg was occupied by Germany in May 1940, the Levys were deported to Vichy France in December 1940. They lived in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, surviving with financial assistance from relatives since Alfred was not able to find work. In 1943, the family was warned by the Resistance that Alfred was to be arrested. He went into hiding on a farm, but was later arrested trying to visit the family. He was soon released with assistance from the Resistance. The family went into hiding again, with Alfred on the farm, Meta and Marlyse at a nursing home run by nuns, and Theo with his math teacher. The area was liberated in fall 1944, and the family moved to Saarbrücken by 1946. Alfred became a judge again, and was active in assisting Jews seeking restitution. Marlyse immigrated to the United States via the SS Liberte in 1952. She married John Kennedy and had a career as an anesthesiologist. Her brother Theo remained in Saarbrücken. Marlyse’s cousin, Marcel Siesel, was in the Resistance and was murdered by the Nazis.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Marlyse Levy Kennedy
The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Marlyse Kennedy in 2015. An accretion was donated in 2016.
Scope and Content
The collection documents the Holocaust experiences of the Levy family of Saarlouis (present day Saarlouis, Germany). Included are identification papers; birth, marriage, and death certificates; immigration and travel documents; and family books that document the movements and lives of Alfred, his wife Meta (née Mayer), and their children Marlyse and Theo as they encountered increasing Nazi persecution in the pre-war and wartime years in the French cities of Saarlouis, Saarbrücken, Thionville, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, as well as Luxembourg. Also included are photographs depicting Alfred Levy as a soldier in World War I and a Supreme Court justice in Saarlouis and Saarbrücken; the Levy family in Luxembourg and Villefranche-de-Rouergue; the Mayer family; the inauguration of a new synagogue in Saarbrücken; and the World Jewish Congress meeting in Montreux, Switzerland.
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged as two series: Series 1: Biographical materials, 1887-1981 and undated; Series 2: Photographs, circa 1895-circa 1960 and undated
People
- Levy family
- Kennedy, Marie-Louise.
- Levy, Meta Mayer, 1891-1969.
- Levy, Theo, 1932-1998.
- Levy, Alfred, 1888-1962.
Subjects
- Jewish families--France.
- Holocaust Jewish (1939-1945)--France.
- Saarlouis (Germany)
- World War, 1914-1918--Jewish participation.
- Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
- Refugees, Jewish--France.
- Emigration and immigration--France.
- World Jewish Congress.
- Saarbrücken (Germany)
- Thionville (Moselle, France)
- World War, 1939-1945--Deportations.
- Synagogues.
Genre
- Document
- Photographs.