Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg papers
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Overview
- Description
- The Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg papers consist of the personal papers of the first post-Holocaust Chief Rabbi of Hesse and Frankfurt am Main. The papers include biographical materials, correspondence, printed materials, records relating to legal cases, writings, and, audio recordings. The collection documents Weinberg’s work in reorganizing the surviving German Jewish community after the war and his examination of philosophical and ethical issues stemming from the Holocaust.
Biographical materials consist primarily of student records, a marriage certificate, an award, and a curriculum vitae documenting Rabbi Weinberg’s life in Austria and Germany, education and rabbinic ordination, marriage, and immigration to the United States. Many of the records are photocopies. This series also includes annotated Jewish calendars and a family tree for someone named Sonja Becher.
Correspondence primarily documents Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg’s postwar rabbinical service in Austria and Germany. Topics include his installation as rabbi in Frankfurt, his efforts to establish a branch of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth Leisrael) in Frankfurt, facilities and services for the returning Jewish community, rebuilding synagogues, repairing tombs, erecting monuments, religious conversions, anti-Semitism, religious cooperation, the Nuremberg trials, the dedication of the new synagogue in Frankfurt, restitution, Weinberg’s planned departure from Germany, libelous articles published about Weinberg, recommendations for Weinberg, and individual and personal requests for help. Correspondents include Leo Baeck, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Jewish communities throughout Germany, American military offices, and German governmental agencies. The series also includes a folder of correspondence with Rabbi Norbert Weinberg about his father and his father’s legacy.
Printed materials primarily consist of articles and clippings about Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg that document speeches given, events attended, and activities undertaken by Weinberg in Germany, his departure from Germany, and his activities in the United States. Most of the clippings are from German and Jewish newspapers. The series also includes clippings about postwar Germany, issues of prewar Jewish publications, and invitations and programs for events in which Weinberg participated.
Records relating to legal cases consist of legal papers and correspondence relating to the cases of Karl Kasperkowitz and Roman Reich. Kasperkowitz, the post-war mayor of Offenbach, was accused of anti-Semitism when he appointed a former Nazi, rather than a Jewish doctor, to head the Offenbach Women’s Hospital. Roman Reich, a Holocaust survivor, was found guilty of a murder in which he did not participate.
Writings primarily consist of articles, essays, lectures, sermons, and speeches by Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg. Topics are religious, secular, academic, and philosophical and include the surviving German Jewish community after the war and philosophical and ethical issues stemming from the Holocaust. This series also include writings by Rabbi Norbert Weinberg about his father, poems by Zofia Nawrocka and Erich Rawitz-Riwatz, and essays by Fritz Fredman and Julius Schrudler.
Audio material includes audio recordings of sermons, speeches, interviews and songs. Phonograph records include parts of Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg’s 11 Nov 1951 farewell sermon (”Morgen frueh...”) and his sermon and songs at a 1948 Purim celebration. The 1951 service included speeches by Max Meyer, Mayor Leiske, US Officer Radigan, Franz Boehm, and Max Horkheimer.
Biographical materials consist primarily of student records, a marriage certificate, an award, and a curriculum vitae documenting Rabbi Weinberg’s life in Austria and Germany, education and rabbinic ordination, marriage, and immigration to the United States. Many of the records are photocopies. This series also includes annotated Jewish calendars and a family tree for someone named Sonja Becher.
Correspondence primarily documents Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg’s postwar rabbinical service in Austria and Germany. Topics include his installation as rabbi in Frankfurt, his efforts to establish a branch of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth Leisrael) in Frankfurt, facilities and services for the returning Jewish community, rebuilding synagogues, repairing tombs, erecting monuments, religious conversions, anti-Semitism, religious cooperation, the Nuremberg trials, the dedication of the new synagogue in Frankfurt, restitution, Weinberg’s planned departure from Germany, libelous articles published about Weinberg, recommendations for Weinberg, and individual and personal requests for help. Correspondents include Leo Baeck, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Jewish communities throughout Germany, American military offices, and German governmental agencies. The series also includes a folder of correspondence with Rabbi Norbert Weinberg about his father and his father’s legacy.
Printed materials primarily consist of articles and clippings about Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg that document speeches given, events attended, and activities undertaken by Weinberg in Germany, his departure from Germany, and his activities in the United States. Most of the clippings are from German and Jewish newspapers. The series also includes clippings about postwar Germany, issues of prewar Jewish publications, and invitations and programs for events in which Weinberg participated.
Records relating to legal cases consist of legal papers and correspondence relating to the cases of Karl Kasperkowitz and Roman Reich. Kasperkowitz, the post-war mayor of Offenbach, was accused of anti-Semitism when he appointed a former Nazi, rather than a Jewish doctor, to head the Offenbach Women’s Hospital. Roman Reich, a Holocaust survivor, was found guilty of a murder in which he did not participate.
Writings primarily consist of articles, essays, lectures, sermons, and speeches by Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg. Topics are religious, secular, academic, and philosophical and include the surviving German Jewish community after the war and philosophical and ethical issues stemming from the Holocaust. This series also include writings by Rabbi Norbert Weinberg about his father, poems by Zofia Nawrocka and Erich Rawitz-Riwatz, and essays by Fritz Fredman and Julius Schrudler. - Date
-
inclusive:
1909-1995
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Norbert and Irene Weinberg
- Collection Creator
- Wilhelm Weinberg
- Biography
-
Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg (1901‐1976) was born in Dolina (Galicia, now Ukraine) to Samuel and Binah Weinberg and had one brother, Benjamin. The family fled to Vienna at the outbreak of World War I. In 1935, Weinberg was ordained as rabbi in Berlin and received a doctorate in political science from the University of Vienna. He was imprisoned in Berlin between 1935 and 1937 for helping German Jews remove their property from Germany, and he fled to Austria upon his release. After the Anschluss, his parents escaped to Switzerland and he to Czechoslovakia, where he was imprisoned in Castle Špilberk in 1939. He escaped to Lwów, where he was reunited with his brother, then to Volgograd, and then to Soviet Central Asia (Frunze, Kirghiz SSR) in 1941, where he worked as a chemist until the end of World War II. He returned to Austria in 1947, and, under the auspices of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC), organized the Jüdische Volksuniversität for people living in displaced persons camps near Salzburg. In 1948 he married Irene Gottdenker who had survived the Holocaust in Lwów under a false identity. From 1948 to 1951, he served as the Chief Rabbi of Frankfurt am Main and of the State of Hesse in Germany. In 1950, he was elected to be the chairman of the Union of Rabbis in Germany. In 1952, he moved to the United States, and served as a rabbi in New York (American Jewish Congregation, 1952‐1957), Ohio (East Liverpool, 1957‐1960), Maryland (Beth Torah, 1960‐1963), West Virginia (Tree of Life, 1963‐1970), Pennsylvania (Oheb Zedeck Congregation in Pottsville, 1970‐1973), and New Jersey (Carteret, 1973‐1975).
Physical Details
- Extent
-
2 oversize folders
6 boxes
1 oversize box
- System of Arrangement
- The Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg papers are arranged as six series:
Series 1: Biographical materials, 1941-1985
Series 2: Correspondence, 1941-1986
Series 3: Printed materials, 1909-1995
Series 4: Records relating to legal cases, 1947-1986
Series 5: Writings, 1928-1990s
Series 6: Audio material, approximately 1948-1985
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Material(s) in this collection may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. You do not require further permission from the Museum to use this material. The user is solely responsible for making a determination as to if and how the material may be used.
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Rabbi Norbert Weinberg and Mrs. Irene Weinberg, Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg’s son and widow, donated the Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives in 1999.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-03-07 12:58:39
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn502232
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-
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Also in Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg collection
The Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg papers consist of the personal papers of the first post-Holocaust Chief Rabbi of Hesse and Frankfurt am Main. The papers include biographical materials, correspondence, printed materials, records relating to legal cases, writings, a nineteen-volume set of the Heidelberg Talmud, audio recordings, and a photograph album. The collection documents Weinberg’s work in reorganizing the surviving German Jewish community after the war and his examination of philosophical and ethical issues stemming from the Holocaust.
Date: 1909-1995
Oral history interview with Irene Weinberg
Oral History
Oral history interview with Abraham Hyman
Oral History
