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Beatrice Muchman papers

Document | Not Digitized | Accession Number: 1998.A.0269.2

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    Overview

    Description
    The Beatrice Muchman papers consist of biographical materials, correspondence, diary and poetry books, a memoir, photographs, and a prayer book documenting the Westheimer family of Berlin, their flight to Brussels, Beatrix Westheimer’s survival in hiding in Ottignies, her parents’ deportations to Auschwitz and deaths, and her immigration to the United States to rejoin her surviving relatives.

    Biographical materials include birth and marriage certificates, vaccination records, identification papers, report cards, petition of adoption, and citizenship and immigration papers documenting Beatrix Westheimer, her parents, her mother’s parents, and her aunt’s family who adopted her.

    Correspondence primarily consists of letters, postcards, and telegrams exchanged among Johanna Boas, her daughters, and their families and documents the Lewy family’s immigration to the United States, the detention of Julius Westheimer and Walter Hurwitz in French concentration camps, living conditions of the remaining family members in Europe and efforts to locate them and bring them to the United States, and the deaths of Walter Hurwitz and Julius and Meta Westheimer.

    The diary and poetry series consists of two small notebooks maintained by Beatrice Muchman from 1944 to 1946. The diary contains eleven French language entries she made between November 1944 and October 1946 documenting her mourning for her parents, her love for her foster mother in hiding, her celebration of Liberation and her birthdays, her preparations for American immigration, and her new life in America. The poetry book includes seven poems she wrote in French and one in English between September 1944 and May 1946 that mourn her parents and celebrate her foster mother, Belgium, and the Allies. This series also includes a loose poem she wrote during the same time period.

    The memoir, photocopies, and translations include an eighteen page memoir by Beatrice Muchman introducing most of the correspondence in the collection as well as the correspondents themselves, translations of many of the letters and postcards in the collection, photocopies and translations of most of the biographical materials in the collection, and a handful of correspondence about the collection.

    Photographs depict members of the Baruch, Boas, Hurwitz, Lewy, and Westheimer families at home in Germany and Belgium and on vacations before the war, Beatrix Westheimer and Henri Hurwitz in hiding in Belgium during the war, and surviving family members after the war in Germany and Belgium.

    The prayer book, Gebete und Gegenssprüche, includes a sticker from C. Boas Nachf. Buchhandlung, the printing business owned by Beatrice Muchman’s grandparents.
    Date
    inclusive:  circa 1900-1999
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Beatrice Muchman
    Collection Creator
    Beatrice Muchman
    Biography
    Beatrice (Trixie) Westheimer was born on June 5, 1933, in Berlin, Germany, the only child of Julius and Meta Boas Westheimer. Meta was born in 1904 to Orthodox Jewish parents, Bernhard (d. 1932) and Johanna Baruch Boas, and had three sisters, Hella, Margot, and Frieda. In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and throughout the 1930s the persecution of Jews became increasingly punitive and violent. In March 1939, Beatrice’s family, including her maternal grandmother, Johanna, and her maternal aunt, Margot Lewy, and her husband, Werner, and son, Bernt, escaped to Brussels, Belgium. They were smuggled across the border with the assistance of two men hired as guides by her father and uncle. They joined her mother’s oldest sister and her family, Frieda, Walter, and Henri Hurwitz, who lived in Ukkle. Her mother had one other sister, Hella Tausk, who with her husband, Walter, had immigrated to the United States earlier in the 1930s. In December 1939, the Lewy family received permission to immigrate to the US and they left for New York.

    Germany conquered Belgium in May 1940 and immediately enacted anti-Jewish legislation. On May 10, 1940, the Germans arrested Beatrice’s father, Julius, and her uncle Walter. Julius was sent to Camp Agde near Montpelier, France, and later to Rivesaltes internment camp. In February 1941, he escaped from the camp and returned to his family in Belgium. Walter was sent to Gurs internment camp in France and on August 6, 1942, was deported to Auschwitz, where he was killed. In July 1942, Beatrice and her cousin Henri were told by their parents that they were going on vacation. Her father took them to the village of Ottignies to live with two Catholic sisters, Jeanne and Adele Duchet. Jeanne explained to Beatrice and Henri that their last name would now be Duchet. The villagers were told that they were Jeanne's niece and nephew. Her father was able to visit once, in the fall of 1942, when he brought the rest of their belongings and worked out the longterm living arrangements for Beatrice and Henri. The children were baptized as Catholics on October 2, 1942. The priest, Father Vass, knew of the children’s situation and helped keep them safe in the village.

    In February 1943, Beatrice’s parents were arrested and sent to the Mechelen ( Malines) transit camp in Belgium. They were soon loaded onto transport XX for Auschwitz concentration camp. They were involved in an escape plan organized by the Belgian resistance. Most of the escapees were gunned down by the German guards. Beatrice's father was shot and eventually died in a nearby home. Her mother was sent to a hospital where she was denounced and recaptured and, on February 26, deported to Auschwitz, where she was killed. Her grandmother and her aunt Frida were able to avoid deportations because their non-Jewish landlady helped them live in hiding in her attic.

    Belgium was liberated by Allied Forces in September 1944. That December, Beatrice and Henri returned to Brussels to live with their grandmother and Henri’s mother. In May 1946, Beatrice and her grandmother immigrated to the United States, where Beatrice was adopted by her aunt and uncle, Margot and Werner Lewy. Beatrice became a teacher. After her adoptive father, Werner Lewy died, age 85, on June 12, 1990, Beatrice learned many details about her past in papers that he had saved. Beatrice had always felt that her parents abandoned her, and she had kept a diary during the war, but now she could understand her history more clearly. In 1997, she wrote a memoir of her experience, Never to Be Forgotten: A Young Girl's Holocaust Memoir.

    Physical Details

    Language
    German English French
    Genre/Form
    Photographs. Diaries.
    Extent
    2 boxes
    1 book enclosure
    System of Arrangement
    The Beatrice Muchman papers are arranged as six series: I. Biographical materials, 1906-1952, II. Correspondence, 1920-1953, III. Diary and poetry, 1944-1946, IV. Memoir, reproductions, and translations, approximately 1999, V. Photographs, approximately 1900-1957, VI. Prayer book, approximately 1930s

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    This material can only be accessed in a Museum reading room or other on-campus viewing station. There are no additional access restrictions to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    The donor 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).

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Beatrice Muchman donated the Beatrice Muchman papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2012, and 2013. The accessions formerly cataloged as 1999.A.0054, 2000.360, 2002.294, 2004.101.1, 2005.557.1, and 2012.66.1 have been incorporated into this collection.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Primary Number
    1998.A.0269.2
    Record last modified:
    2023-07-27 11:42:04
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn610152

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