Loewenstein family papers
Extent and Medium
folders
12
Creator(s)
- Loewenstein family
Biographical History
Ernest (1926‐2012) and Günter (Guy) Loewenstein (1931‐2005) were born in Koblenz to Sali Löwenstein and Hedwig (Hede) Anschel Löwenstein. Sali was imprisoned in Dachau for about six weeks following Kristallnacht. He and Hede arranged for their sons to be relocated via Kindertransport to Antwerp, Belgium, where they were placed with the Levi and Weinberg families, while Sali and Hede traveled to Great Britain on temporary visas awaiting immigration papers to the United States. After the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, the Levi and Weinberg families fled the country, leaving the boys to fend for themselves. They slept in abandoned attics, in a synagogue under the protection of Mr. Rosenbaum, a cantor there, and with a Belgian woman named Madame Marion until Guy was placed with the Best family and Ernest returned to the synagogue. Ernest and Guy traveled to Berlin to obtain Spanish transit visas in September 1941, traveled to Barcelona to receive American visas in October, missed the last ship out of Barcelona, and immigrated to the United States aboard the MS Serpa Pinto out of Lisbon in December. They were reunited with their parents in New York.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ernest Lowenstein and Guy Lowenstein
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Ernest and Guy Loewenstein donated the Loewenstein family papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2001.
Scope and Content
The Loewenstein family papers consist of biographical materials, emigration and immigration correspondence, and photographic materials documenting the Loewenstein family of Koblenz, Ernst and Guy Loewenstein’s refuge in Belgium, Hede and Sali Loewenstein’s refuge in England, and their efforts to immigrate to the United States and be reunited. The collection also includes a handful of Red Cross correspondence documenting the Loewensteins’ efforts to trace someone named Kathi Loeb. Biographical materials include identification, registration, and travel papers and vaccination certificates documenting Ernest, Guy, and Hede Loewenstein, their emigration from Germany, and immigration to the United States. Emigration and immigration records consist of correspondence with American government agencies and American and British aid organizations about arrangements for Ernest and Guy Loewenstein’s immigration to the United States. American government agencies include the State and Treasury Departments and Immigration and Naturalization Service, and aid organizations include the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany, Selfhelp of Emigrés from Central Europe, the National Refugee Service, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. These files also include a clipping from the February 5, 1942 issue of the Jewish Review about Ernest and Guy Loewenstein’s reunion with their parents in New York. Photographic materials include loose photographs and a photograph album documenting the Loewenstein family in Koblenz as well as Ernest and Guy Loewenstein and their benefactors in Antwerp. The photograph album includes photographs of Ernest and Guy Loewenstein, their father, and their friends Paul Sonnenberg, Kurt Oster, Hans Kaufman, Bernhard (Mogges) Berndt, Fred Faber, Walter Treidel, and Ernst Haiman. Red Cross correspondence documents the Loewensteins’ efforts to trace Kathi Loeb (1883‐1942), who was deported from the French internment camp at Noé to Auschwitz, where she was killed.
System of Arrangement
The Loewenstein family papers are arranged as four series: I. Biographical materials, 1937-1941 II. Emigration and immigration records, 1940-1942 III. Photographic materials, 1936-1941 IV. Red Cross correspondence, 1942-1943
People
- Loewenstein family
Subjects
- Jews--Germany--Koblenz.
- Jewish refugees--Belgium--Antwerp.
- Berlin (Germany)
- Germany--Emigration and immigration--History--1933-1945.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust--Belgium.
- Antwerp (Belgium)
- Hidden children (Holocaust)--Belgium--Antwerp.
- Kindertransports (Rescue operations)--Belgium.
- Koblenz (Germany)
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document