Seeligmann family papers

Bertram (1891-1948) and Erna Seeligmann (b. 1893) were born in Berlin, Germany. Bertram attended the Berlin Momsen High School and then joined the Elisabeth Infantry regiment in World War I. Later, he worked in the German stock market and as a journalist at the "12 O'clock Paper." The Seeligmanns had three children: Ursula (b. 1923), Brigitte (1925-1927), and Walter (b. 1927). The family lived in Berlin until 1938 when they discovered that Bertram was to be arrested by the Gestapo. In order to avoid his pending incarceration, the family (Bertram, Ema, Walter, Ursula, and Flora, Bertram's mother) acquired visas and fled to Tientsin (now Tianjin), China. In Tientsin, Bertram worked as a representative for an American insurance company. After World War II, the family stayed in China for a short period. Bertram died from illness in December 1948 in China. The remaining members of the family moved back to Berlin in the early 1950s. Flora Seeligmann died in 1955. The rest of the Seeligmann family immigrated to the United States in the mid 1950s.