Ungar, Hammerschlag and Breuer family collection
Extent and Medium
boxes
oversize folder
11
1
Creator(s)
- Margaret Ungar
- Bertha Hammerschlag
- Josef Breuer
Biographical History
Margaret Ungar (Gretl, 1894-1985) was born Margarethe Hammerschlag in Vienna to Paul Hammerschlag and Bertha Breuer Hammerschlag. She had two sisters: Elisabeth (Lilli, 1895-1994) and Helene (Helli, 1899-1968). Elisabeth Hammerschlag married Rudi Duschnitz and had son Toni. Helene Hammerschlag married Sebastian Isepp and had daughter Konstanze and son Martin. Margaret married Felix Ungar (1887-1970) and had three daughters: Elizabeth (Liesl, 1920-1985), Andrea (Andy, 1923-1996), and Marlene (Maria, (1928-2022). Felix Ungar was a World War I veteran, inherited his family’s mineral water business (Mattoni-Ungar), and also became a managing partner in Gösser Bier. His parents were Samuel (d. 1912) and Jenny Ungar (d. 1937), and his maternal grandparents were Pheobus (1831-1910) and Hani Schmelkes (d. 1921). Margaret and Felix lived with their daughters in an apartment house shared among Breuer, Hammerschlag, and Isepp relatives. Felix was imprisoned following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938 and was only released after signing over his business. In the fall of 1938, Margaret sent her daughter Marlene to London to stay with her mother Bertha and sister Helene Isepp. She sent her daughters Elizabeth and Andrea to France to stay with her sister Elisabeth Duschnitz. Margaret and Felix immigrated to New York in December 1938, sailing from Boulogne, and sponsored by Herbert Lehman. Marlene, Elizabeth, and Andrea sailed to New York in January 1939 to join their parents. Elizabeth married Charles Beckwith, Andrea married Fred Wilson, and Marlene married Ben Bagdikian. Margaret’s mother Bertha joined the Ungar family in America in 1946.
Bertha Hammerschlag (1870-1962) was born Bertha Breuer in Vienna to Josef Breuer (1842-1926) and Mathilde Altmann Breuer. She had five siblings: Robert, Margaret (Gretl), Lilli, Hans, and Dora. Bertha married lawyer and banker Paul Hammerschlag (1860-1933), son of Samuel Hammerschlag (1826-1904), born in Bohemian Leipa (now Česká Lípa), and of Betty Josephson Hammerschlag (1827-1916) from Berlin. Paul had three siblings: Anna Hammerschlag (1861-1938), who married Rudolf Lichtheim; Albert Hammerschlag (1863-1935); and Emil Hammerschlag (1866-1949), who married Marie (Mitzi) Bardach. Emil, Marie, and their adopted daughter Rosita Gruenberg emigrated to London after the Nazi annexation of Austria. Bertha joined her daughter Helene Isepp in London following the annexation and immigrated to the United States in 1946, joining her daughter Margaret Ungar.
Josef Breuer (1842-1926) was a physician and physiologist and a colleague of Sigmund Freud. He and his wife Mathilde Altmann Breuer had six children: Robert, Bertha, Margaret (Gretl), Lilli, Hans, and Dora. Hans and his wife Kaethe had a son called Gustl. Gretl (married name Schiff) perished at Theresienstadt in 1942. Gretl’s daughter Hanna Schiff was also deported and perished during the Holocaust. Dora Breuer died by suicide in 1942 to avoid deportation.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of Marlene Ungar Griffith Bagdikian
Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2019 by Marlene Ungar Griffith Bagdikian.
Scope and Content
The Ungar, Hammerschlag and Breuer family papers include biographical materials and correspondence documenting three related families from Vienna. Biographical materials include birth, marriage, and death certificates and notices, immigration papers, photographs, remembrances, and printed materials. Correspondence consists of handwritten and typed letters, postcards, and telegrams exchanged among Ungar, Hammerschlag, and Breuer relatives and friends at home in Vienna, on vacation throughout Europe, and after relocating to France, England, and America following the Nazi annexation of Austria. The largest volume of correspondence is from Bertha Hammerschlag to her daughter Margaret Unger and from Felix Ungar to his wife Margaret and to his sister Edith Landon. There is also extensive correspondence among Bertha Hammerschlag and her daughter Helene Isepp and grandson Martin Isepp. This series also includes letters between Margaret Ungar and her daughters Elisabeth, Andrea, and Marlene; her father Paul: her uncle Emil; her grandparents Samuel and Betty Lichtheim; her sisters Elisabeth and Helene and Helene’s daughter Konstanze; and her aunts and uncles Dora, Hans, Robert, and Kaethe Breuer. Additional Ungar family correspondents include Felix’s mother Jenny, sisters Paula Kaufmann and Edith Kirk Landon, and brother Robert. Photocopies of letters from Josef Breuer are also included.
System of Arrangement
The Ungar, Hammerschlag and Breuer family papers are arranged as two series: Series 1: Biographical materials, circa 1859-1998 Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1901-1985
People
- Bertha Hammerschlag
- Josef Breuer
- Margaret Ungar
Subjects
- United States--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
- Jewish refugees--United States.
- Jews--Austria--History--20th century.
- Jews--Persecutions--Austria.
- Jewish refugees--England.
- Vienna (Austria)
- Austria--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
Genre
- Correspondence.
- Document
- Photographs.