Braunwasser family papers
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Overview
- Description
- The Braunwasser family papers consist of biographical materials, correspondence, photographs, and restitution files documenting the Braunwasser family in prewar Vienna, Inge Braunwasser's immigration to the United States as one of the "50 children" rescued by Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, her parents' immigration shortly after, and their new life in Alice, Texas.
Biographical materials include identification papers; birth, marriage, naturalization, and death certificates; student records; employment records and letters of recommendation; name change records in accordance with Nazi laws about Jewish middle names; property records; medical prescriptions; and two pages of handwritten recipes. These records primarily document the Braunwasser’s life in Vienna and their immigration to the United States.
Correspondence includes a letter of gratitude from Elsa to the Geschwir relatives for taking care of Inge; three messages from Elsa in Texas to her mother in Vienna during the war; a letter from Simon’s brother Isadore regretting that he could not supply an affidavit for the Braunwasser family; a telegram confirming that Inge had arrived in Texas; two letters from Gilbert Kraus enclosing Inge’s identification and immigration documents and promising to try to help her parents; postcards and a letter from Inge in Texas to her parents in Vienna; birthday postcards to Inge; and thank you letters to Inge from a group of schoolchildren to whom she had given a presentation about her immigration experience.
Photographs depict Simon Braunwasser’s family in Poland during the 1910s; the Braunwasser family in Vienna during the 1930s, including childhood photos of Inge, and in Alice, Texas during the 1940s and 1950s; and the children and grandchildren of Inge Braunwasser Steinberger. Also included are images of Gusti Weber, a neighbor and friend of the Braunwassers in Vienna, and of Weber’s son, who was killed while serving in the Germany Army during World War II. Additional photographs depict the Geschwir family, who welcomed Inge to Texas, the Weiss family, and Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus with the “50 children,” including Inge Braunwasser.
Restitution files include correspondence with Fonds zur Hilfeleistung an politisch Verfolgte, Finanzdirektion fur Wien, and a lawyer named Julius Klügler documenting Inge’s efforts to receive compensation for Holocaust-era household damage and occupational injury. - Date
-
inclusive:
circa 1900-2014
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Dr. Sidney Steinberger
In memory of his mother, Inge Braunwasser
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Sidney Steinberger and Ruth Steinberger Pincus - Collection Creator
- Braunwasser family
- Biography
-
Inge Steinberger (1930-2003) was born Inge Marion Braunwasser in Vienna, Austria to Simon (1894- 1956) and Elsa (née Weisz, 1897-1956) Braunwasser. The Braunwassers managed to include Inge among the fifty Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Austria that Americans Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus rescued and brought to the United States in May 1939. Inge was initially sent with the other children to a summer camp operated by Brith Shalom in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter, her father's uncle and aunt, Max (Mendel) and Clara Geschwir, picked her up and brought her to their home in Alice, Texas, where she spent the next decade. Her parents immigrated to the United States in December 1939 aboard the S.S. Veendam and joined their daughter and relatives in Texas. Simon Braunwasser, who was a salesman in Vienna, established a dry goods business in Texas in the years following his arrival. In 1951, Inge married Bernard Steinberger, a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania who had moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, to help his widowed sister, and whom Inge had met through a Jewish social club in Corpus Christi. The Steinbergers, had two children, Sidney and Ruth, and subsequently moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.
Physical Details
- Extent
-
1 box
- System of Arrangement
- The Braunwasser family papers are arranged as four series:
I. Biographical materials, approximately 1917-1946
II. Correspondence, 1938-1998
III. Photographs, approximately 1900-2014
IV. Restitution files, 1958-1965
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- The donor, source institution, or a third party has asserted copyright over some or all of these material(s). The Museum does not own the copyright for the material and does not have authority to authorize use. For permission, please contact the rights holder(s).
- Copyright Holder
- Steinberger, Dr. Sidney
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Gift of Sidney Steinberger and Ruth Steinberger Pincus, in memory of their mother, Inge Marion Braunwasser, 2016.
- 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:
- 2023-02-24 14:26:05
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn531022
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Also in Inge Braunwasser Steinberger family collection
The collection consists of a cigar holder, correspondence, documents, and photographs related to the experiences of Inge (Braunwasser) Steinberger, originally of Vienna, Austria, and her parents, Simon and Elsa Braunwass emigration to the United States in 1939.
Date: 1904-2014
