Ruth Loewenstein collection

Overview

Collection Summary

Doll: handmade by Annie Loewenstein (donor's mother) in Munich, Germany. The Loewenstein family: Willy (donor's father) [b. 1894], Annie [b. 1904], Ruth (donor) [b. 1929], and Marianne (donor's sister) [b. 1932], were able to leave Germany in August 1939 for England. Ruth and Marianne were wearing thin gold bracelets on their wrists and each carried a doll. The German guard at the Dutch border tore off the bracelets, but did not pay any attention to the dolls. Upon arrival in New York on September 10, 1940, Annie took the heads off the dolls, in which she had hidden valuables. She sold the valuables and used the money to rescue her parents from Germany. Also included in the collection are additional clothing for the doll and "Kleine Bibel" a children's Bible carried by Ruth from Munich. Collection of photographs and documents relating to the Loewenstein family in Munich, Germany. The collection includes among other items, postcards written in the Dachau concentration camp; Kennkarten of the members of the family; German passports marked with the red letter "J"; family correspondence relating to emigration from Germany and other correspondence; family photographs depicting the family's ladie's lingerie stores and family photographs; Military pins received by Willy Loewenstein after his military service during WWI; Transferred to USHMM Library: Book: memorial book to Jewish soldiers who fell in WWI while serving with the German Army; Hanger: with engraved name "A. Loewenstein, Rotenburg"

Provenance

The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013 and 2017 by Ruth Loewenstein.