Hilde Aron papers

Hilde Aron (1921-2002) was born Brunhilde Speier to Levi (1885-1941) and Franziska (Fraenze, née Rosenbusch, 1893-1941) Speier, and she had one sister, Ursula (Ursel, 1924-1941). The Speier family was from Guxhagen, Germany, the Rosenbusch family was from Borken, Germany, and Frieda Rosenbusch Stern lived in Melsungen, Germany. Hilde trained to be a dental assistant in Hamburg and Kassel in the 1930s. At age 17, she left her family in Germany at the end of 1937 and arrived in the United States in early January 1938, along with her cousin Blanche, the daughter of her father’s brother, Joel Speier. She lived with her Aunt Rickchen (her father’s sister) and Uncle Joseph Heilbrunn and their three sons in Chicago. Blanche’s father, Joel, his second wife, Malwine, and their son, Bruno, moved from Guxhagen to Berlin in 1940 and immigrated to the US via Barcelona in August 1941. Hilde’s parents and sister expected to join her shortly in America but never received the necessary papers. They are believed to have been included on a transport from Frankfurt originally destined for Riga that was diverted to Kaunas Fort IX in November 1941 and shot upon arrival. Hilde’s cousin, Julie (Ilse) (daughter of her mother’s sister, Frieda), moved to Palestine with her husband, Heinz. Frieda was deported to Poland and perished in the Holocaust. Hilde’s aunt Clara (her mother’s other sister) left Germany for England with her husband Ernst by 1939 and immigrated to New York after the war. Hilde married Fred Aron (1921-2008) and had sons Dennis and Lester. Fred Aron was born in Immendorf, Germany to Sally (Samuel) Aron and Selma Wirth. He immigrated to the United States via Rotterdam with his parents, his brother, Lothar, and his grandmother, Karoline (Lena), in 1938 and settled in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. He served in the US Army in World War II.