Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Steamer trunk labelled Mombasa used by Max and Clara Davids Berg and their extended family when they fled Cologne, Germany, in May/June 1939. The family was warned by neighbors to leave their home in Lechenich prior to the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938. Their homes were vandalized and the family decided to leave Germany. Max's sons, Josef and George, and cousin Ernest fled to the Netherlands. They were arrested, but their uncle, Herman Meyer, hired a lawyer and the men were detained but not deported. This gave the family time to find a country where they could emigrate legally. A family friend got them permits for British-ruled Kenya and eventually seventeen family members relocated to a cattle ranch near Nairobi during the war. Max died in 1942 and Clara in 1945. When the war ended in May 1945, the family decided to leave Africa. With the help of two cousins in the US, visas were obtained for the family. Josef, his wife Klara Meyer, and daughters, Inge, 18, and Jill, 14, used the trunk to emigrate to the US. Along with other family members, they arrived in Boston in mid-march 1947.
- Date
-
manufacture:
1938
emigration: 1938
- Geography
-
acquired:
Cologne (Germany)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Jill Berg Pauly
- Markings
- lid, front center, nameplate : Garantiert Sperrholz [Guaranteed Plywood]
lid, front center, on front of plastic rim below nameplate : D.R.P.
lid, front center, on back top and bottom of plastic rim, handwritten, black ink : 47/47 - Contributor
-
Subject:
Jill B. Pauly
Subject: Max Berg
- Biography
-
Gisela (Jill) Renate Berg was born on May 1, 1933, to Josef and Klara Meyer Berg, in the small farming community of Lechenich, Germany, near Cologne. Her father was born there in 1896 to Max and Clara Davids Berg and had a brother Georg. Klara was born on November 13, 1904 in Linnich/Duhren to Bertha Schwarz Meyer. The Berg family had lived in the area since the 1600s. Josef and his brother worked with their father in his cattle business. Gisela had an older sister, Inge, born on March 27, 1929. The Bergs were an observant Jewish family. Max was the president of the local synagogue association.
After Hitler was appointed Chancellor in January 1933, antisemitic restrictions became increasingly harsh. Max had to arrange to have a non-Jew run their business.That May, one of Jill’s uncles began removing large sums of money and putting it in Dutch banks. Her sister, Inge, was no longer allowed to go to the public school and was sent to live with her grandmother where there was a Jewish school she could attend. Warned by neighbors of the impending Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, many family members went into hiding in Cologne. Their homes were broken into and most of their belongings were destroyed. Several family members lived crowded into one apartment. They could no longer enjoy such things as picnics, going to the moves, and taking vacations. Gisela was never allowed outside; her parents were so worried about her safety that they kept her indoors at all times. The following week, Jill's father, his brother, George, and cousin, Ernest, fled to the Netherlands to escape arrest. They were imprisoned upon their arrival for illegal entry. The police told Herman Meyer, Klara’s brother and a resident of Holland, that the men were going to be deported back to Germany the next day. Herman contacted Maurice Silversmit, a leader in the Jewish community in Rotterdam. He told Herman to confront the police and tell them that written permission from The Hague was needed to return them to Germany. This gave him time to hire an attorney and request asylum for the three men. This was granted, but they had to remain in a detention center.
The family decided to look for another country where they could enter legally. Rosel (Marx) Berg, the wife of Karl, Josef’s cousin, had a relative who had emigrated to England in 1937. She called him daily from Cologne seeking assistance. This relative had a younger brother, Herman Strauss, who worked for a law firm in Kenya. He was able to secure the family visas for Kenya, a British colony at the time. Herman Strauss paid the mandatory 50 pounds per person for entry papers. Josef, George, and Ernest were released from the detention center in May on the condition that they leave for Kenya. Josef and George were the first members of the Berg family to arrive in Africa. They were interned in Camp Roever, then went to Nairobi where Josef rented a house from Lord and Lady Nepye. Ernest and Else Geisel were married in Maurice’s home before leaving Holland. They then went to Genoa, Italy, to meet more than a dozen members of the family who had left Germany: Inge, Jill, and their mother Klara, Sara Meyer Berg, wife of Joseph Berg and Gisela's maternal aunt, Rosel Marx Berg and her eighteen month old son Egon, Max and Clara Davids Berg, Jill’s paternal grandparents, and Berta Schwarz Meyer, her maternal grandmother. They sailed on board the SS Usambara and arrived in Mombasa, Kenya, in June 1939. Karl and Josef Berg arrived from Germany in August.
After WW II began with the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the British government arrested all adult male foreigners, including Josef, his brothers, and his father. They were released a week later with the condition that they work on the farms of British citizens conscripted for war service. The Bergs were classified as enemy aliens and could leave their homes only with the permission of a police commissioner. In late 1939, the Bergs purchased a 375-acre farm in Limuru and 125 acres in Maguga. They raised thoroughbred cattle and pyrethrum, a flowering plant used to make insecticide. There were two houses, quite different from the ones they had left in Germany. Gisela’s home had a tin roof and cement floors, no electricity or indoor plumbing, although after two months they did have running water. Karl and Josef had brought the Sefer Torah when they left on the last boat out of Hamburg. The family held their own religious services on the farm since they could not drive to Nairobi on the Sabbath. Other members of the local Jewish community attended and, from 1945-1947, her uncle George was cantor at the Nairobi synagogue. In order to earn money for the children’s school fees, Klara ran a vacation boarding house. They had guests every weekend. Their paternal grandparents also lived with them. They tried to have tutors at the farm for the girls, but this did not work. They were enrolled in the Limuru Girls School for three months. Gisela had never attended school and the language difficulties and isolation made it very difficult. They transferred to a British boarding school in Nairobi and Gisela changed her name to Jill because of the rampant anti-Semitism, as well as anti-German and anti-immigrant feelings. Jill was harassed by the other children and accused by some teachers of being a German Jewish spy and beaten with a ruler. She and Inge had to board with strangers to keep kosher and lived with three or four different families in five years.
After Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Herman Meyer, Adolf and Erna Meyer Baum and their daughter Hannah, who had left Germany in 1937, fled to Kenya with one suitcase. With the birth of Philip John Berg to Ernest and Else in 1942, there were seventeen family members in all. For a while, they could send packages and correspond with relatives still in Europe. But by summer, that stopped. Clara had three siblings, Max, Valentin, and Moritz, who, with their wives, Betty, Hedwig, and Ida, were last heard from in July 1942 when Max wrote to say they were all now deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. Jill’s maternal grandmother Berta died ca. 1942 of lung cancer. Her grandfather Max, age 82 years, also died that year. Her grandmother Clara died in 1945. They were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Nairobi. Around this time, Jill’s parents rented a house in Nairobi to be with the girls.
Many relatives from all sides of the family perished during the war. Clara, Jill's paternal grandmother, had nearly 100 cousins, but no survivors were found. The family made the decision to leave Kenya as soon as the war ended in May 1945. With the assistance of cousins John and Joseph Schwarz, who had emigrated to the US from Germany in 1939, they left Kenya on cargo boats and arrived in Boston in March 1947. The family settled in Vineland, New Jersey, where they operated a chicken farm and dairy business. In 1951, her sister, Inge, married Walter Katzenstein, a fellow refugee from Nazi Germany. In 1957, Gisela married Kurt Pauly. Kurt and his parents, Hugo and Selma Herz Pauly left Germany for Palestine in 1936, then left for the US in 1938. The couple had two children. Jill has volunteered for the USHMM for many years, sharing her experiences to teach "about hate and discrimination and the effects on mankind, and, always, every single time I enter the building, in memory of all who did not survive."
Max Berg was born in 1860 in Lechenich (Erfstadt), Germany, a small farming community near Cologne. He had a brother Jonas. His family had lived in the area since the 1600s. Around 1895, he married Clara Davids. Clara was born in 1865 in Krefeld to Caroline Falkenstein Davids (1842-1909). She had a sister, Rosalie (1870-1938), and six brothers, Max, Valentine, Moritz, Herman, David and ?. Clara’s sister, Rosalie, married Michael Hermanns and had six children: Julius, Fritz, Sofia, Henrietta, and two sons who died in World War I (1914-1918). The family was Jewish Orthodox. Max was president of the local synagogue association, and his brother Jonas, who died during the 1920s, was cantor. The couple had two sons, Josef, born in 1896, and George, born in 1898, who worked with their father as cattle dealers. Josef married Klara Meyer, who was born November 13, 1904. Josef and Klara had two daughters, Inge, born on March 27, 1929, and Gisela, born on May 1, 1933.
After Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in January 1933, antisemitic restrictions became increasingly harsh. Max had to arrange to have a non-Jew run his business. The family was warned by neighbors of the impending Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, and moved into hiding in Cologne. Their seventeen room house was broken into and most of their belongings were destroyed. The following week, their two sons and a cousin, Ernest Berg, fled to the Netherlands to escape arrest and were imprisoned for illegal entry. Josef's brother-in-law, Herman Meyer, a resident of Holland, contacted a leader of the Jewish community in Rotterdam, Maurice Silversmit, and hired an attorney to secure them permission to remain.
Max and the other family members decided to seek a country where they could relocate legally. Rosel Marx Berg, (b. February 20, 1911) wife of Karl (b. December 26, 1892), contacted a relative, Arnold Strauss, who had immigrated to England, for help. He, in turn, asked his younger brother, Herman Strauss, who worked for a law firm in Kenya, to help secure visas for the Berg family. Strauss paid the mandatory 50 pounds per person and acquired entry papers to Kenya, a British colony. Josef, Ernest, and George were released around May on the condition that they leave for Kenya. Josef and George left England for Mombasa on May 11, 1939. They were briefly detained, then found a place to live in Nairobi. Ernest married Else Geisel in Maurice Silversmit’s home in Rotterdam. They then went to Genoa, Italy, to join the family members coming from Germany: Max and Clara, Josef's family: Gisela, Inge, and Klara Meyer Berg, Klara's mother, Berta Meyer, and Berta's sister Sara Meyer Berg, and Karl’s family, Rosel Marx Berg and her 18 month old son Egon. They sailed on board the German ship, SS Usambara. A Jewish refugee organization arranged for them to get kosher food during the voyage. They arrived in Mombasa, Kenya, in June 1939. Karl and Josef Berg arrived from Germany in August.
That September, Great Britain declared war on Germany following the invasion of Poland. The British colonial government arrested all adult male foreign nationals, including eighty year old Max. They were put in an internment center prior to transport to a detention camp. The next day, Clara went to the center and told the British authorities that after forty-five years of marriage, she goes where Max goes. She said that if they were going to take him, they had to take her; she did not want him to be alone. They told her that they would leave him here. After review, they released all the Berg family members. The men were required to work on the farms of British citizens conscripted for war service. Throughout the war, the Bergs had the status of enemy aliens and could leave their homes only with the permission of a police commissioner.
The Bergs purchased a 375-acre farm in Limuru and 125 acres in Maguga where they raised thoroughbred cattle and pyrethrum, a flowering plant used to make insecticide. There were two houses, with tin roofs and cement floors, and no electricity or indoor plumbing, although they eventually had running water. Max and Clara lived with Josef and his family. Karl and Josef had brought the Sefer Torah with them. It had been purchased by their uncle Karl Schwarz, who stayed behind. The family held their own religious services on the farm since they could not drive to Nairobi on the Sabbath. George was the cantor. In order to earn money for the children’s school fees, Klara ran a vacation boarding house and they had guests every weekend. After a few months, Inge and Gisela were sent to a British style boarding school in Nairobi.
After Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Herman Meyer, Adolf and Erna Meyer Baum and their daughter Hannah, who had left Germany in 1937, fled to Kenya with one suitcase. With the birth of Philip John Berg to Ernest and Else in 1942, there were now seventeen family members in exile. The family was able to send packages and correspond with family members in Germany. In July 1942, Clara received a letter from her brother Max Davids informing her that he and his wife Betty were being deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in German annexed Czechoslovakia, where their other siblings, Valentin and his wife Hedwig, and Moritz and his wife Ida, were already interned. That was the last letter she received. Max died in 1942, age 82. Clara passed away in 1945. They were both buried in the Jewish cemetery in Nairobi.
After the war ended in May1945, the family learned that most of their relatives had perished in the Holocaust. Clara had nearly 100 cousins in Krefeld, none of whom survived. The Berg family members decided to leave Kenya. In 1947, they emigrated to the United States.
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Containers
- Category
-
Luggage
- Object Type
-
Trunks (Luggage) (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Rectangular fiberboard trunk covered with brown treated burlap. The lid is reinforced with metal rivets in the corners and is attached to the base by 3 metal hinges. The opening is reinforced with a plastic liner attached with rivets. On the front is a nameplate, 2 hasp locks, and 2 leather side handles attached with rivets and a metal bracket. A metal wire is attached to one handle. The interior is lined with paper. There are 4 wooden rails on the bottom.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 17.500 inches (44.45 cm) | Width: 41.000 inches (104.14 cm) | Depth: 21.500 inches (54.61 cm)
- Materials
- overall : fiberboard, wood, metal, plastic, cloth, leather
- Inscription
- lid, center top left, below handle, black paint : MB [Max Berg]
lid, top back, on fragmented white label is an address label in French
lid, top back, on fragmented label, outlined in black ink : Mombasa
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The steamer trunk was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2008 by Jill Berg Pauly, the granddaughter of Max and Clara Berg.
- Record last modified:
- 2024-06-14 14:29:16
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn34996
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Also in Berg and Hermanns families collection
The collection includes a cake server, cooking pot, Kenyan statues, silver spoon, steamer trunk, prayer book, biographical materials, correspondence, photographs, and publications relating to the experiences of Clara and Max Berg and their extended family in Germany before their escape to Kenya and their life in Kenya during the Holocaust, and their postwar immigration to the United States and the Hermanns family and Julius Hermanns’ journey aboard the MS St. Louis, return to Europe, and internment in France. An accretion of five WWI medals was received in 2016.
Date: approximately 1880-1957
Prayer book
Object
Siddur inscribed and owned by George Berg in prewar Germany. The front cover and pages are defaced with dung as a result of the vandalization of the Berg home during Kristallnacht 9-10, 1938, in Lechenich, Germany.
Silver vermeil cake server received as a wedding gift by a Jewish woman in prewar Germany
Object
Silver vermeil serving knife received as a wedding gift by Selma Herz upon her marriage to Hugo Pauly, circa 1927, in Eilendorf, near Aachen, Germany. It was a gift from Abraham Hollander, Anne Frank's maternal grandfather, who was a first cousin of Selma's mother, Caroline Menken Herz. The knife may have been a family heirloom that originally belonged to Rosa'a mother. Soon after the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in 1933, the Herz family businesses were boycotted because they were Jewish. In early 1936, Selma and Hugo emigrated to Palestine with their 5 year old son, Kurt. They then emigrated to the United States in December 1938.
Berg and Hermanns families papers
Document
The Berg and Hermanns families papers consist of biographical materials, correspondence, and photographs documenting the Berg family and their escape to Kenya and the Hermanns family and Julius Hermanns’ journey aboard the MS St. Louis, return to Europe, and internment. The Berg family papers consist primarily of biographical materials, correspondence, and photographs documenting the Berg family from Germany and their escape to Kenya. Biographical materials include birth certificates, a military passbook, a marriage certificate, two family registers, certificates of good conduct, a letter of recommendation, travel papers, permissions, passports, a certified list of belongings Klara Berg took to Kenya, Kenyan certificates of registration, a miniature date book, an autograph book, and German and American identification cards documenting the Berg family and the Pauly family (Gisela Berg’s husband and his parents). Correspondence consists of letters and postcards among Berg family members, Pauly family members, and Berg relative Ella Schweizer. Berg family correspondence includes letters from Berg family members in Germany to those in Kenya as well as Red Cross inquiries about relatives deported to Theresienstadt and about family friends in Rotterdam. Pauly family correspondence consists of letters to Selma Pauly from family friend Josef Kaussen relating family news. Ella Schweizer postcards contain greetings. Photographs depict members of the Berg family and their relatives in Germany and Kenya. Printed materials include a clipping showing a map of Allied advances into North Rhine-Westphalia, a pocket calendar gifted to the Berg family from N. Menachemson, a program from a Nairobi Hebrew Congregation prayer service, and a survey map of Berg property in Kenya. Restitution materials include Pauly family correspondence and affidavits about their loss of property, health, and education during the Holocaust. The Hermanns family papers consist primarily of correspondence documenting Julius Hermanns’ efforts to flee Germany; his voyage aboard the MS St. Louis; his internment in Fresnay-sur-Sarthe, Saint Cyprien, Gurs, and Les Milles; and his relatives’ efforts to discover his fate as well as that of his wife and daughter and of Sol Meyer’s brother, Karl Meyer. Postcards from Karl to Sol describe his wartime life in Köln. The papers also include identification papers for Sol and Henrietta Meyer, clippings about the St. Louis and about Theresienstadt, Karl Meyer’s drawing of his mother, a satirical poem about the difficulties of emigration, and a report about Buchenwald. Photographic materials include photographs of a liberated concentration camp (possibly Buchenwald), Julius Hermanns, and Sol and Henrietta Meyer, and a photo album depicting the Hermanns family in Germany and the Meyers’ immigration voyage to New York in 1938.
Enameled cooking pot with lid used by a German Jewish family forced to emigrate
Object
Cooking pot and lid brought with Gisela Berg and her family to Kenya where they lived after fleeing Cologne, Germany, in May/June 1939. They used this pot when preparing for Passover. The family was warned by neighbors to leave their home in Lechenich prior to the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938. Their homes were vandalized and the family decided to leave Germany. Jill's father Josef, his brother George, and cousin Ernest fled to the Netherlands. They were arrested, but their uncle, Herman Meyer, hired a lawyer and the men were detained but not deported. This gave the family time to find a country where they could emigrate legally. A friend got them permits for British-ruled Kenya and eventually seventeen family members relocated to a cattle ranch near Nairobi. When the war ended in May 1945, the family decided to leave Africa. With the help of two cousins in the US, visas were obtained for the family. Gisela, 14, her sister Inge, 18, her parents Josef and Klara, and other family members arrived in Boston in March 1947.
Kenyan wood bust of an African youth owned by a German Jewish refugee family
Object
Carved wooden bust of an African male in profile, with the hair and stretched earlobes of a Maasai warrior, acquired by Gisela Berg and her family in Kenya where they lived after fleeing Cologne, Germany, in May/June 1939. The family was warned by neighbors to leave their home in Lechenich prior to the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938. Their homes were vandalized and the family decided to leave Germany. Jill's father Josef, his brother George, and cousin Ernest fled to the Netherlands. They were arrested, but their uncle, Herman Meyer, hired a lawyer and the men were detained but not deported. This gave the family time to find a country where they could emigrate legally. A friend got them permits for British-ruled Kenya and eventually seventeen family members relocated to a cattle ranch near Nairobi. When the war ended in May 1945, the family decided to leave Africa. With the help of two cousins in the US, visas were obtained for the family. Gisela, 14, her sister Inge, 18, and her parents Josef and Klara along with other family members, arrived in Boston in March 1947.
Kenyan wood sculpture of two gazelles owned by a German Jewish refugee family
Object
Carved wooded sculpture of an adult gazelle with one young offspring acquired by Gisela Berg and her family in Kenya where they lived after fleeing Cologne, Germany, in May/June 1939. The family was warned by neighbors to leave their home in Lechenich prior to the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938. Their homes were vandalized and the family decided to leave Germany. Jill's father Josef, his brother George, and cousin Ernest fled to the Netherlands. They were arrested, but their uncle, Herman Meyer, hired a lawyer and the men were detained but not deported. This gave the family time to find a country where they could emigrate legally. A family friend got them permits for British-ruled Kenya and eventually seventeen family members relocated to a cattle ranch near Nairobi. When the war ended in May 1945, the family decided to leave Africa. They obtained visas with the help of two cousins in the US. Gisela, 14, her sister Inge, 18, her parents Josef and Klara, and other family members arrived in Boston in March 1947.
Aluminum pitcher used by a German Jewish family forced to emigrate
Object
Aluminum pitcher used by Gisela Berg and her extended family when they fled Cologne, Germany, in May/June 1939. The family was warned by neighbors to leave their home in Lechenich prior to the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938. Their homes were vandalized and the family decided to leave Germany. Jill's father Josef, his brother George, and cousin Ernest fled to the Netherlands. They were arrested, but their uncle, Herman Meyer, hired a lawyer and the men were detained but not deported. This gave the family time to find a country where they could emigrate legally. A family friend got them permits for British-ruled Kenya and eventually seventeen family members relocated to a cattle ranch near Nairobi. When the war ended in May 1945, the family decided to leave Africa. They obtained visas with the help of two cousins in the US. Gisela, 14, her sister Inge, 18, her parents Josef and Klara, and other family members arrived in Boston in March 1947.
Medal with ribbon
Object
Iron Cross medal with the dates 1914-1918 surrounded by a laurel wreath on one side, and the words "R.V. Pforzheim" on the other side. The medals belonged to Hugo Pauly.
Medal with ribbon
Object
Iron Cross medal with the dates 1914-1918 surrounded by a laurel wreath on one side, and the words "R.V. Pforzheim" and the number 85 on the other side. The medals belonged to Hugo Pauly.
Medal with ribbon
Object
Iron Cross medal with the date 1914 and the letter "W" on one side and the initials "FW" and the date of 1813 on the other side. The medals belonged to Hugo Pauly.
Medal with ribbon
Object
Copper colored medal with ribbon. The medal has the word "Merenti" on one side and the date "1866" on the other. The medal depicts crossed swords as well as a lion. The medals belonged to Hugo Pauly.
Medal with ribbon
Object
Iron Cross medal with the date 1914 and the letter "W" on one side and the initials "FW" and the date of 1813 on the other side. The medals belonged to Hugo Pauly.
Silver teaspoon engraved Hilde given to a Jewish girl in prewar Germany
Object
Child's spoon engraved with her name and given to Hilde Hermanns circa 1930, when she was a 7 year old child in Monchengladbach, Germany. When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, Hilde and her parents, Julius and Margarete (Grete), lived comfortably in Monchengladbach where her father ran a dry goods store with his siblings. The Nazi regime increasingly persecuted Jews, boycotting and taking away their businesses. Julius was arrested in September 1938 and sent to Dachau, and then Buchenwald concentration camp. He was released in April 1939, with the condition that he leave the country. He left on the MS St Louis, but it was forced to return from Cuba with nearly all passengers. Julius was given refuge in France, but interned after Germany invaded Poland in September and France declared war. Hilde was assigned as forced labor in a factory in July 1940. In December 1941, Hilde, her mother, Grete, and paternal aunt Sophie were deported to the Riga ghetto in German occupied Latvia. Julius was deported to Auschwitz in August 1942, and killed. On October 1, 1944, Hilde, 19, and Margarete, 45, were transferred to Stutthof concentration camp, where they perished. The spoon was preserved by her cousin, Jill Berg, whose family fled Lechenich, Germany, just before Kristallnacht in November 1938, and left for Kenya in May/June 1939.
Berg and Hermanns families photographs
Document
Contains photographs documenting the experiences of Clara and Max Berg and their extended family in Germany before their escape to Kenya, and their life in Kenya during the Holocaust.