Overview
- Interview Summary
- Emmy Loeb (née Sigall), born on May 31, 1923 in Darmstadt, Germany, describes her childhood and family, including her parents (Hermann and Natalie Sigall) and brother (Alex Sigall); her journey on a Kindertransport to England in the summer of 1939; living with the Callahan family in St. Annes (Lytham St. Annes), Lancashire; the efforts of her parents and brother (Alex Sigall) to leave Germany; being forced to relocate to Bolton in June 1940, then Breconshire (Wales) until the restriction was lifted in October 1940, and she subsequently moved to Wolverhampton, where she found work first as a dressmaker, and then in a die casting plant; working for the United States Forces in the European Theatre with the Civil Censorship Division based in Offenbach and Esslingen from 1945-1947; returning to Britain and leaving for the United States in August 1947 on the ship “Marine Hunter”; finding work as a dressmaker and living with her aunt Karolin and cousins Walter and Ludwig in Brooklyn, NY; meeting Harry Loeb at a wedding in New York in December 1947 and getting married in 1950; her two children, Harvey (born 1952) and Marcia (born 1956); and settling in Yonkers, NY.
- Interviewee
- Emmy Loeb
- Interviewer
- Harvey Loeb
- Date
-
interview:
1993 November 28
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Harvey Loeb
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
1 DVD.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
- Copyright Holder
- Harvey Loeb
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Clothing workers--Great Britain. Dressmakers--Great Britain. Holocaust survivors--Great Britain. Holocaust survivors--United States. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Personal narratives. Jewish children in the Holocaust. Jewish families--Germany. Jewish refugees--Great Britain. Jewish women in the Holocaust. Jews--Germany--Darmstadt. Kindertransports (Rescue operations) World War, 1939-1945--Children. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Breconshire (Wales) Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) Darmstadt (Germany) Esslingen am Neckar (Germany) Great Britain--Emigration and immigration. Lancashire (England) Lytham St. Anne's (England) Offenbach am Main (Germany) United States--Emigration and immigration. Wolverhampton (England) Yonkers (N.Y.)
- Personal Name
- Loeb, Emmy, 1923-
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Harvey Loeb donated the oral history interview with his mother, Emmy Loeb, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in February 2017. The interview was conducted by Harvey Loeb on November 28, 1993.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:40:55
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn557838
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Also in Sigall family collection
Correspondence, identification documents, photographs, and related materials, concerning the emigration of Emmy (née Sigall) Loeb, from her home in Darmstadt, Germany, on a “Kindertransport” to Britain in 1939; her settlement in Britain; and the efforts of her parents, Hermann and Natalie Sigall, and brother, Alex, to leave Germany in the years that followed.
Date: 1939-1993
Sigall family papers
Document
Correspondence, identification documents, photographs, audio recording, and related materials, concerning the emigration of Emmy (née Sigall) Loeb, from her home in Darmstadt, Germany, on a “Kindertransport” to Britain in 1939; her settlement in Britain; and the efforts of her parents, Hermann and Natalie Sigall, and brother, Alex, to leave Germany in the years that followed. One folder of biographical documents includes the birth certificate reissued to Emmy after the war, in Darmstadt, 1949. Also included are three pieces of identification issued to her during her residency in Britain, including a Certificate of Registration for aliens (1939-1943), a National Registration Identity Card (1943-1947), and a Military Entry Permit issued by the Allied occupation authorities in Germany, valid from 1945 to 1947. Correspondence consists of one folder of letters received by Emmy from her parents and brother in Darmstadt (and occasionally from other relatives) and one folder regarding attempts to contact American aid groups in order to obtain affidavits. The correspondence from her family extends from July 1939 through January 1940, but also includes a couple of undated letters, and one sent to Emmy from her brother Alex in Palestine in September 1941. The letters, written mostly by her father, discuss the plans to emigrate, efforts to find a way to send Alex to England, discussion of Emmy’s arrival in Britain and her initial experiences there, and efforts for her to meet other relatives already living in England. During the course of the letters, Hermann reflects on the difficulties the family has encountered in Germany, and is alternately optimistic and pessimistic about their chances of being able to leave the country. Alex’s letter of September 1941 reports on news he had heard about their parents from his uncle Julius, who had been in contact with him, and had conveyed the news that both parents had been sent to concentration camps, and he provided the mailing addresses for them there. The correspondence seeking affidavits includes responses from a representative of Rabbi Stephen Wise in New York, and the National Council of Jewish Women, explaining that they were unable to provide affidavits or support for the Sigall family to immigrate to the United States at that time (February through June 1939). The collection also includes a photograph of Emmy with her aunt Lin (Karolin Kirchhausen), and cousins Ludwig and Walter Buxbaum, circa late 1940s.