John and Dorothy Fried Goldmeier papers
Extent and Medium
boxes
3
Creator(s)
- John Goldmeier
- Dorothy Goldmeier
Biographical History
Hans Goldmeier was born on July 20, 1928 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to Isidor and Erna Lippmann Goldmeier. Hans had an older brother, Rolf. In April 1939, the Goldmeiers sent Hans (“John”) and Rolf to England, where a cousin had arranged for the brothers to be cared for with a Jewish family in Sunderland. Isidor and Erna were able to escape to London, where Isidor waited to obtain governmental permission to work and Erna worked as a nursemaid. After the war began in September 1939, the brothers were evacuated to a town in Yorkshire, where they lived with the Scott family on their farm. They visited their parents in London infrequently. In April 1941, Isidor died suddenly of a heart attack. Erna decided that Rolf should attend an ORT training school in Leeds and Hans was sent to the Stoatley Rough boarding school in Haslemere. He remained there with other German Jewish refugee children, as well as some Christian children, until his graduation in 1944. In January 1945, Erna, Rolf, and Hans immigrated to the United States. Hans, now John, enrolled in City College, and worked a series of odd jobs, including in the diamond and in the fur industries. In 1949, Erna Goldmeier married Jose Levy. John graduated with a bachelor's degree in social work from City College in 1951, a master's degree from Tulane in 1953, and spent some time in the military working as a social worker. In December 1961, he married Dorothy Fried (b. 1937), whose parents had emigrated from Germany in 1930. John Goldmeier earned his doctorate of social work at the University of Chicago in 1966 and spent most of his career at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. He and Dorothy had three children. John Goldmeier died on May 14, 2002.
Dorothy Fried Goldmeier was born on December 29, 1937 to Hede (Hedwig Dorothea Nakler) and Hans John Friedländer. Hede Nakler was born in 1901 in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Her older brother, Manfred, died in 1917 as an infantryman in the German Army during World War I. Hans (John) Friedländer was born in 1897 in Breslau. John fought in the German Army during World War II. Hede and John both emigrated to the United States and married in July 1930 in New Jersey. John’s mother, Clara Fried, emigrated to the United States from Germany in April 1940 to join her son’s family.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Karen Goldmeier Green
Funding Note: The accessibility of this collection was made possible by the generous donors to our crowdfunded Save Their Stories campaign.
Karen Goldmeier Green donated her father's collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013.
Scope and Content
This collection relates to Hans (John) Goldmeier, who was sent from Germany to England at age 10. Though his older brother emigrated with him, and parents later followed, John was separated from them (due to work, school, and the death of his father) for the majority of the war. He formed strong bonds with those caring for him and his schoolmates at the Stoatley Rough boarding school, many of whom were also Jewish refugees. The collection highlights include John’s schoolwork at Stoatley Rough, where he reflected on the war and his own refugee status, and many reminiscences of other “Roughians” at the many post-war reunions that were held. The collection also includes smaller collections of documents, German passports (Reisepass), and photographs related to the Nakler and Friedländer families documenting their lives in Germany, World War I, and emigration. Both Hede Nakler and Willy Fried (John’s brother) gave oral history interviews on audiotape, which are also included in the collection. The Friedländer family is distantly related to the family of Arthur Kronthal who put together a family tree and narrative entitled “A Jewish Life From the Last Century” which is also included in this collection. Please see also 2006.18, the Goldmeier family records, for related family material.
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged in a loose chronological order, with oversize and archival items that need special housing located in an oversize box, listed as box 3.
People
- Dorothy Goldmeier
- Kronthal, Arthur.
- Gomar, Ralph.
- Fried family.
- Goldmeier, Isidor.
- John Goldmeier
- Goldmeier, John.
- Goldmeier, Dorothy Fried.
- Goldmeier, Erna.
- Nakler family.
Corporate Bodies
- Stoatley Rough School (Surrey, England)
Subjects
- Jewish refugees--England--Surrey.
- Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- Great Britain--Emigration and immigration.
- Social workers.
- Jews--Cultural assimilation--Great Britain.
- Jews--Education--Great Britain--History.
Genre
- Document
- Diaries.
- Photographs.