Overview
- Description
- The collection documents the Holocaust experiences of the Joseph family of Berlin, Germany. Included is wartime correspondence of Margot Hamburger (née Joseph) and her brother Bernard Joseph, both of whom emigrated from Berlin by 1940, and their parents Salli and Martha Joseph in Berlin. Other materials include identification papers, documents related to Margot and her husband Egon Hamburger’s time in Palestine, documents related to Bernard’s internment in Australia, and family photographs from Berlin and Palestine.
- Date
-
inclusive:
1914-1997
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Margot Hamburger
- Collection Creator
- Joseph family
- Biography
-
Salli Joseph (1886-1943) was born in Neuenbürg, Germany to Manne and Dorothea (née Danziger) Joseph. He served in World War I with the German Army, and earned the Iron Cross. After the war, he married Martha Danziger (1886-1943) and they settled in Berlin, Germany where they ran a tailoring business in their home. They had two children, Bernard (1920-1997) and Margot (1924-; later Margot Hamburger).
Margot attended public schools until 1934, and then attended a Jewish school. She became a Zionist while in school and began planning to immigrate to Palestine. She joined Youth Aliyah in 1939, and on 25 March 1940 she sailed on the Marco Polo out of Trieste, Italy to Haifa, Palestine. She worked on a kibbutz called Ramat David for a little over two years. She would later work as a mail carrier and telephone operator. She was able to keep in contact with her parents, and received additional information about them through relatives and the International Red Cross. In October 1943, she learned from an aunt in the United States that her parents had been deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. She learned after the war that they were killed shortly after their arrival to the camp. She married Egon Hamburger (1913-1968) in 1950 in Israel, and they had two children. They immigrated to the United States in 1954.
Bernard was able to get a work permit for England, and left Germany in 1939. He was sent to an internment camp in Tatura, Australia around 1941, and was sent back to England around 1943, where he settled in Leeds. He married Ruth Hilda Loew (1912-1985), also a Jewish refugee from Berlin, in 1944, and they immigrated to the United States after the war.
Physical Details
- Extent
-
1 box
- System of Arrangement
- The collection is arranged as three series: Series 1: Biographical material, 1914-1997; Series 2: Correspondence, 1939-1947; Series 3: Photographs, circa 1918-1949
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
- Topical Term
- Jews--Germany--History--1933-1945. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Australia. Jewish families--Germany--Berlin.
- Geographic Name
- United States--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century. Palestine--Emigration and immigration--1917-1948. England--Emigration and immigration. Victoria (Australia)
- Personal Name
- Joseph, Bernard, 1920-1997. Joseph, Ruth. Hamburger, Egon, 1913-1968. Hamburger, Margot, 1924- Joseph, Salli, 1886-1943. Joseph, Martha, 1886-1943.
- Corporate Name
- Tatura (Internment camp)
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Margot Hamburger in 2005.
- Record last modified:
- 2024-04-01 11:42:02
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn523237
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Contact Us
Also in Margot Hamburger family collection
The collection consists of three World War I medals and documents relating to the experiences of Margot Joseph, her parents Salli and Martha Danziger Joseph, and her brother Bernard in Germany and Palestine before, during, and after World War II. Some of these materials may be combined into a single collection in the future.
Date: 1914-1953
World War I Iron Cross medal that belonged to a Jewish veteran and concentration camp inmate
Object
Medal awarded to Salli Joseph for his service in the German Army during World War I, 1914-1918. Salli and his family lived in Berlin, Germany, and he began searching for ways to get his family out of the country after the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in 1933. They tried to get visas for the United States, since his wife's sister had lived there for some time. However, Salli and his wife, Martha, were placed on the very restrictive Polish quota system by the US because they were born in West Prussia. In 1939, they sent their 19 year old son, Bernard, to England and in 1940, their 16 year old daughter, Margot, to Palestine. Salli and Martha were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp on March 6, 1943, where they were killed shortly after arrival.
WWI German military black and white striped ribbon that belonged to a Jewish veteran and concentration camp inmate
Object
Ribbon which belonged to Salli Joseph, probably awarded for his service in the German Army during World War I, 1914-1918. Salli and his family lived in Berlin, Germany, and he began searching for ways to get his family out of the country after the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in 1933. They tried to get visas for the United States, since his wife's sister had lived there for some time. However, Salli and his wife, Martha, were placed on the very restrictive Polish quota system by the US because they were born in West Prussia. In 1939, they sent their 19 year old son, Bernard, to England and in 1940, their 16 year old daughter, Margot, to Palestine. Salli and Martha were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp on March 6, 1943, where they were killed shortly after arrival.
Blue, white and red bar ribbon that belonged to a Jewish German WWI veteran and concentration camp inmate
Object
Ribbon bar which belonged to Salli Joseph probably awarded for his service in the German Army during World War I, 1914-1918. Salli and his family lived in Berlin, Germany, and he began searching for ways to get his family out of the country after the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in 1933. They tried to get visas for the United States, since his wife's sister had lived there for some time. However, Salli and his wife, Martha, were placed on the very restrictive Polish quota system by the US because they were born in West Prussia. In 1939, they sent their 19 year old son, Bernard, to England and in 1940, their 16 year old daughter, Margot, to Palestine. Salli and Martha were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp on March 6, 1943, where they were killed shortly after arrival.
Margot Hamburger papers
Document
The papers consist of nine letters between Eka Rozenkranz in Cyprus to Margot Joseph [donor] in Israel between February 1947 and May 1947. Also included are three photographs of images of Bernard Joseph [donor's brother] at the ORT school in Berlin, Germany, dated 1938-1939, and three photographs of images of Margot Joseph in Palestine, dated 1944-1949.
Margot Hamburger photographs
Document
Consists of two photographs that show Margot Hamburger with family members in 1939 and 1940. One image shows her with brother Bernard Joseph in Berlin, Germany in 1939 before Bernard's departure for England. The second image of Margot with her parents, Salli and Martha, dated March 24, 1940, her 16th birthday, in Berlin, Germany and the day before she left for Palestine.
