Archival Descriptions

Displaying items 2,141 to 2,160 of 2,248
Language of Description: English
  1. Watercolor painting of people in line for lunch acquired by an American internee

    1. Leonie Roualet collection

    Watercolor painting of the dining room during lunch at Vittel internment camp in German-occupied France, originally owned by Gertrude Hamilton and eventually given to Leonie Roualet. Gertrude and Leonie became friends while interned together in Vittel. Both women were from the United States, but were living in France when Germany invaded in May 1940. Leonie was taking care of ailing relatives, while Gertrude worked as an ambulance driver for the American Hospital in Paris. In July 1941, Gertrude started working for the bureau for civilians set up by the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Associati...

  2. Watercolor painting of women collecting Red Cross packages acquired by an American internee

    1. Leonie Roualet collection

    Watercolor painting of women receiving Red Cross packages at Vittel internment camp in German-occupied France, originally owned by Gertrude Hamilton and eventually given to Leonie Roualet. Gertrude and Leonie became friends while interned together in Vittel. Both women were from the United States, but were living in France when Germany invaded in May 1940. Leonie was taking care of ailing relatives, while Gertrude worked as an ambulance driver for the American Hospital in Paris. In July 1941, Gertrude started working for the bureau for civilians set up by the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Ass...

  3. Watercolor portrait with frame of a Polish resistance member recovered by her family

    1. Zyzniewski family collection

    Watercolor portrait of Janina Zyzniewska preserved by her son Wieslaw and her mother Wilhemina Jezierska. The Zyzniewskis were a Catholic family from Łódź, Poland, who were active in the resistance organized to oppose the German occupation. Wieslaw and his mother Janina were arrested by the Gestapo in February 1942 for their political activities and sent to Radogoszcz prison. In October 1942, they were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, where Janina died in January 1943. Wieslaw was sent to Buchenwald in March 1943 where he was liberated by the US Army in April 1945.

  4. Wechselnde Pfade

    1. Anti-Nazi resistance and opposition

    The account by Walther Hensel describes his arrest and internment in various prisons on trumped up charges during the years 1937-1939. He describes in harrowing detail the humiliations and abuse one had to endure by the hands of the Gestapo, but also acts of kindness by regular prison guards. With the help of a committed lawyer, he managed to be released early.

  5. Wedding dress shipped to the United States by a German Jewish woman murdered at Riga

    1. Lubran family collection

    Cream silk wedding dress, worn by Alice Lubranitsky Plocki, a German Jewish woman, and shipped to the United States prior to her deportation and murder at the Riga ghetto in 1941. Alice married Robert Plocki in the early 1930s. The couple lived in Berlin where Robert manufactured women’s dresses. Robert’s brother, who lived in New York, sent an affidavit for the couple to immigrate to the United States. Thinking she would soon be able to immigrate, Alice had her dress shipped ahead. However, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, Robert was arrested, imprisoned in Sachsenhausen, given prisoner ...

  6. Wedding dress with ruffle made for the marriage of 2 German Jewish DP camp aid workers

    1. Alice and John Fink collection

    White, full skirted gown worn by Alice Redlich, 28, at her wedding to Hans Finke, 28, at the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp on June 20, 1948. The dress was made by her sister-in-law Ursula, a seamstress. She made the dress in Berlin and brought it to Bergen Belsen during a visit to friends in Bavaria. The British Army liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945, and it became a DP camp. Hans and Alice were aid workers when they met and married. Alice and her family were German Jews living in Berlin during the rise of the Nazi dictatorship with its aggressive anti-Jewish policies. Alice ...

  7. Wedding of Red Orchestra resistance members

    January 25, 1941 wedding of Günther Weisenborn and Margarethe (Joy) Schnable in Berlin. Günther and Joy belonged to the important German resistance group labeled "Rote Kapelle" [Red Orchestra] by the Gestapo. Both were later arrested and survived only with great fortune. Resistance members pictured in the film include Harro Schulze-Boysen and his wife Libertas, the actress Marta Husemann, and famous publisher Ernst Rowohlt. The film opens with a hand-drawn title: “Hochzeit in Schoeneberg”. Horse-drawn carriage with driver. Günther and Joy seated. Berlin street scenes - street cars, tall bui...

  8. Wehrmacht M1931 mess tin placed on a workbench used to conceal a Jewish family’s hiding place

    1. Stefan Petri collection

    Wehrmacht M1931 mess tin with a missing lid placed on a workbench that concealed one of the hiding places Stefan Petri built in his home in Wawer, Poland. Stefan, his wife, Janina, and their son, Marian, were Polish Catholics. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and began subjugating the Polish people. Uncertain of what might occur, Stefan built a basement hiding place concealed by a cabinet. In mid-1942, the Germans deported 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka killing center. Stefan learned that his Jewish dentist and friend, Dr. Szapiro, his wife Ela, and their adult...

  9. Weimar Germany Reichsbanknote, 1 billion marks, owned by an Austrian Jewish refugee

    1. Ella Hochstadt Gruber Maier and Erich Maier family collection

    Emergency currency, valued at 1 billion marks, likely acquired by Dr. Erich Maier. The note was originally issued in 1922 by the German government in the amount of 1,000 marks but as a result of hyperinflation it was overprinted with a 1 billion amount in 1923. It features an image of the Meister of the Imperial German Mint, Jorg Herz. After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938, Erich’s law practice in Vienna was confiscated because he was Jewish. In November, he decided to leave the country for the United States with his wife, Ella, and two step-daughters, Amelia and Gerda. Af...

  10. Weimar Germany Reichsbanknote, 1 billion marks, owned by an Austrian Jewish refugee

    1. Ella Hochstadt Gruber Maier and Erich Maier family collection

    Emergency currency, valued at 1 billion marks, likely acquired by Dr. Erich Maier. The note was originally issued in 1922 by the German government in the amount of 1,000 marks but as a result of hyperinflation it was overprinted with a 1 billion amount in 1923. It features an image of the Meister of the Imperial German Mint, Jorg Herz. After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938, Erich’s law practice in Vienna was confiscated because he was Jewish. In November, he decided to leave the country for the United States with his wife, Ella, and two step-daughters, Amelia and Gerda. Af...

  11. Weimar Germany Reichsbanknote, 1 billion marks, owned by an Austrian Jewish refugee

    1. Ella Hochstadt Gruber Maier and Erich Maier family collection

    Emergency currency, valued at 1 billion marks, likely acquired by Dr. Erich Maier. The note was originally issued in 1922 by the German government in the amount of 1,000 marks but as a result of hyperinflation it was overprinted with a 1 billion amount in 1923. It features an image of the Meister of the Imperial German Mint, Jorg Herz. After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938, Erich’s law practice in Vienna was confiscated because he was Jewish. In November, he decided to leave the country for the United States with his wife, Ella, and two step-daughters, Amelia and Gerda. Af...

  12. Weimar Germany Reichsbanknote, 100 billion marks, owned by an Austrian Jewish refugee

    1. Ella Hochstadt Gruber Maier and Erich Maier family collection

    Emergency currency, valued at 100 billion marks, likely acquired by Dr. Erich Maier. The note was issued in 1923 by the German government during the period of hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic. After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938, Dr. Maier and his family decided to leave due to the anti-Jewish laws and persecution by the German authorities. In November 1938, Erich, his wife Ella, and his stepdaughters, Amelia, 9, and Gerda, 7, left for the US. He and Ella submitted several affidavits of support to help family members escape Europe, but Erich lost nearly all his fami...

  13. Weimar Germany Reichsbanknote, 100000 mark, owned by an Austrian Jewish refugee

    1. Ella Hochstadt Gruber Maier and Erich Maier family collection

    Emergency currency, valued at 100 thousand marks [hundert tausend] mark, likely acquired by Dr. Erich Maier. The note was issued in 1923 by the German government during the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic. After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938, Dr. Maier and his family decided to leave due to the anti-Jewish laws and persecution by the German authorities. In November 1938, Erich, his wife Ella, and his stepdaughters, Amelia, 9, and Gerda, 7, left for the US. He and Ella submitted several affidavits of support to help family members escape Europe, but Erich lost nearl...

  14. Weimar Germany Reichsbanknote, 2 million marks, owned by an Austrian Jewish refugee

    1. Ella Hochstadt Gruber Maier and Erich Maier family collection

    Emergency currency, valued at 2 million marks, likely acquired by Dr. Erich Maier. The note was issued in 1923 by the German government during the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic. The oak leaf garland watermark indicates a private firm printer. It features an image of the Hanse merchant, Georg Giese. After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938, Erich’s law practice in Vienna was confiscated because he was Jewish. In November, he decided to leave the country for the United States with his wife, Ella, and two step-daughters, Amelia and Gerda. After the war ended in May 1945,...

  15. Weimar Germany Reichsbanknote, 500 million marks, owned by an Austrian Jewish refugee

    1. Ella Hochstadt Gruber Maier and Erich Maier family collection

    Emergency currency, valued at 500 million marks, likely acquired by Dr. Erich Maier. The note was issued in 1923 by the German government and is an example of the money printed during the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic. The small circle watermark indicates a private firm printer. After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938, Erich’s law practice in Vienna was confiscated because he was Jewish. In November, he decided to leave the country for the United States with his wife, Ella, and two step-daughters, Amelia and Gerda. After the war ended in May 1945, Erich worked as a c...

  16. Weimar Germany Reichsbanknote, 500 million marks, owned by an Austrian Jewish refugee

    1. Ella Hochstadt Gruber Maier and Erich Maier family collection

    Emergency currency, valued at 500 million marks, likely acquired by Dr. Erich Maier. The note was issued in 1923 by the German government during the period of hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic. The small circle watermark indicates a private firm printer.After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938, Dr. Maier and his family decided to leave due to the anti-Jewish laws and persecution by the German authorities. In November 1938, Erich, his wife Ella, and his stepdaughters, Amelia, 9, and Gerda, 7, left for the US. He and Ella submitted several affidavits of support to help fami...

  17. Weiss family papers

    The papers consist of a list sent from Malines concentration camp by Karl Weiss, Dorothea's father, to Madame Dujardin who saved Dorothea and her sister from deportation by the Gestapo, a good conduct certificate (Führungszeugnis) issued to Berta Weiss, Dorothea's mother, a letter sent to Karl Weiss by the police in Berlin, Germany, a re-issued birth certificate, and a family wedding photograph.

  18. Wellisch and Auerbach families papers

    1. Kurt and Frieda Wellisch and Ignaz and Rosine Auerbach collection

    Biographical materials primarily document Ignatz and Rosine Auerbach and Kurt and Frieda Wellisch. Auerbach records include Rosine’s birth certificate and a transport list, Łódź ghetto records, and AJDC records documenting Rosine’s and Ignatz’s deportation from Vienna to Łódź. Wellisch records include records documenting Frieda’s education and employment, a copy of her Third Reich passport, a confirmation of her birth, a copy of Kurt’s and Frieda’s marriage certificate, and a copy of a photograph of the couple aboard the Rex en route to New York. This series also includes a 1925 letter from...

  19. Werner R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Werner R. who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1927. He recalls his father losing his job in 1933; moving to Zagreb; attending public school; their Zionist, rather than Jewish, identity; his father's death in 1940; German invasion in 1941; being baptized with his sister; living separately from his mother and sister because it seemed safer; his sister's escape to Italy; working with the partisans; and arrest by the Gestapo in 1943. Mr. R. tells of jails in Graz and Vienna; transport to Terezi?n; cabarets and opera; German efforts to preserve Jewish books; and transport t...

  20. Westerbork Arrival

    Arrivals at Westerbork transit camp. Workers and guards at train station. Train pulls in. People get off trains with bundles; chaotic feeling. Freight train pulls in, Jewish prisoners from Vught concentration camp wearing clogs and work clothes, get off, line up. They have been sent to Westerbork for punishment. Brief INT of registration (out of focus).