Fred Manasse collection

Manfred Kurt Manasse (Fred) was born on 27 July 1935 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany to Alfred Manasse and Trude Lieblich Manasse. Alfred (1895-1942) was born in Thalheim, German to Gustav and Elise (née Mannheimer) Manasse, and his family worked as cattle farmers in Thalheim. He owned a small shoe factory in Offenbach, outside of Frankfurt. Trude (b. 1904) was born in Baden-Baden, Germany. Her family owned a hotel in Baden-Baden and some of her relatives lived in Strasbourg. Fred had one older brother, Gustav (b. 1931), and one younger sister, Miriam (b. 1937).

Alfred’s brother Julius, his wife Hilda, and their son Kurt immigrated to the United States in the 1938, but as a leader in the Frankfurt Jewish community, he was reluctant to leave. During Kristallnacht, the Manasse’s witnessed their synagogue burn down, and Alfred was briefly imprisoned at Buchenwald. After Kristallnacht, Alfred began planning to emigrate, and he arranged for Fred and Gustav to go on a Kindertransport to Belgium. They stayed in a children’s home in Brussels. Trude refused to leave Germany, and remained in Frankfurt with Miriam and Alfred’s mother while Alfred left Germany aboard the MS. St. Louis in May 1939. After Cuba denied entry to the passengers of the ship and the St. Louis was forced to return to Europe, Alfred disembarked in Belgium so that he could be near his sons. He hoped his wife and daughter would be able to join them in Brussels, but after the start of World War I in September they were unable to leave Germany.

On 10 May 1940 Germany invaded Belgium. Fred and Gustav went on a children's convoy to France and eventually arrived at the Chateau de la Hille, which was under the protection of the Swiss Red Cross. Alfred was deported to the Gurs internment camp. While in Gurs he reunited with Trude's father Philip Lieblisch and his sister and brother-in-law Liesl and Theodor Rosenthal. On one occasion Fred and Gustav were able to briefly visit their father in the camp. In August 1942 Alfred was deported to the Drancy internment camp and then to Auschwitz where he perished. Theodore was a trained chef and was working as the cook, so he and the rest of the family were spared from deportation and remained at Gurs until liberation in 1944.

In 1944 Fred and Gustav left France on a children's transport to the United States. Before arriving in the United States they spent two months Barcelona, Spain and six months in an orphanage in Lisbon, Portugal. They then sailed to the United States aboard the SS Serpa Pinto in December 1944. They arrived in Philadelphia on 10 January 10 1945 and then took a train to New York where they were met by their first cousin, Kurt Manasse. Fred’s uncle Julius Manasse sponsored their immigration, but they did not live with him, and instead spent the next few years in foster homes. Fred studied to become an electrical engineer, and later in life he became a sculptor.

Trude and Miriam were likely deported to Theresienstadt and then Auschwitz where they perished.