Overview
- Description
- The Otto and Erna Stein family papers include biographical materials and correspondence documenting the Stein family, their immigration to the United States in 1938, and their relatives’ experiences under Nazi rule in Neustadt an der Haardt, Nieder-Olm, Wiesbaden, and Mannheim.
Biographical materials include birth, marriage, and death certificates, death notices, International Tracing Service forms, Yad Vashem “Hall of Names” forms, passports, student and apprenticeship record, military papers, records from Otto Stein’s time as a Prisoner of War in England during World War I, identification cards, money transfer receipts, a certificate for Otto Stein’s Cross of Honor for World War I soldiers, visa applications, and a receipt for the family’s passage to America.
Correspondence files primarily consist of letters to Lotte Zinner’s family in America from her mother’s parents, Albert and Justine Kramer, in Nieder-Olm and then Wiesbaden, from her paternal grandmother, Klementine Stein, in Neustadt an der Haardt and then Mannheim, and from her uncle and aunt, Wilhelm and Flora Stein, in Berlin-Neukölln, London, and then Chicago. These letters describe immigration efforts and life in Nazi Germany Additional correspondence files include postcards congratulating Justine Selig and her family upon her engagement in 1896 and letters from great uncle Ferdinand Bach in St. Louis in 1915 that later served as the basis for Otto and Erna Stein’s family search when they were ready to immigrate. The collection further includes a 1911 postcard to Otto Stein from his brother with a photograph of Wilhelm pasted to it, a 1925 letter enclosing a photograph of Lotte Zinner as a baby, correspondence describing family and friends’ efforts to emigrate, letters after the war describing the fates of family and friends, and correspondence between Lotte Zinner and the National Museum of American Jewish Military History about Zinner’s father and her family records. - Date
-
inclusive:
1889-2000
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lotte and David Zinner
- Collection Creator
- Otto Stein
Erna Stein - Biography
-
Cloth merchant and business-owner Otto Stein (1890-1980) and Erna Stein (née Kramer, 1897-1967) lived in Neustadt an der Haardt with their daughter, Lotte Zinner (1924- ). Otto Stein had served in the German army during World War I and spent 33 months in a British POW camp. In May 1938 Zinner and her parents immigrated to the United States and settled in St. Louis. Otto Stein’s mother Klementine Bach died in Mannheim within a year of Kristallnacht. His brother, Wilhelm Stein, immigrated to the United States with his wife Flora in 1940, where they settled in Chicago. Erna Stein’s parents, Albert Kramer and Justine (Jenny) Kramer (née Selig) were both deported to Theresienstadt in 1942 where they died in 1942 and 1943 respectively. Lotte Stein was naturalized as an American citizen in 1945 and married Julius Zinner in 1947.
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- Photographs.
- Extent
-
1 box
- System of Arrangement
- The Otto and Erna Stein family papers are arranged as two series:
Series 1: Biographical Materials, approximately 1889-2000
Series 2: Correspondence, 1896-2000 (bulk 1911-1947)
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
- David Zinner
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Jews--Germany--Neustadt an der Haardt. Jewish families--Germany--Neustadt an der Haardt. Jews--Germany--History--1933-1945. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Holocaust survivors. Holocaust victims' families. Jewish refugees--Missouri--Saint Louis. World War, 1914-1918--Prisoners and prisons, German.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The Otto and Erna Stein family papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Lotte and David Zinner, Otto and Erna Stein’s daughter and grandson, in 2000.
- 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 13:58:33
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn502435
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Also in Erna and Otto Stein family collection
The Otto and Erna Stein family collection includes a German Cross of Honor for World War I Combatants, biographical materials and correspondence documenting the Stein family, their immigration to the United States in 1938, and their relatives’ experiences under Nazi rule in Neustadt an der Haardt, Nieder-Olm, Wiesbaden, and Mannheim.
Honor Cross of the World War 1914/1918 combatant veteran service medal awarded to a German Jewish soldier
Object
Das Ehrenkreuz des Weltkriegs 1914 1918 [The Honor Cross of World War 1914/1918) awarded for serving in combat in the German Army during the First World War. The award was established by President Paul von Hindenburg, on July 13, 1934. This was the first official WWI service medal of the Third Reich, often referred to by an unofficial name, Hindenburg Cross. Hindenburg, Field Marshal of German forces during WWI, appointed Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933, and soon a Nazi dictatorship ruled the country.