Freyer and Lichtenstein families papers
The collection consists of biographical material, immigration paperwork, correspondence, and photographs documenting the pre-war lives of Leo and Eva Freyer (née Lichtenstein) and their children Marion and Ursula in Berlin, their emigration from Germany to the United States in 1939, and wartime correspondence with family members and friends still in Germany. There is a small amount of material related to the Lichtenstein family of Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia).
Biographical material includes birth certificates, German identification cards and passports, marriage papers, documents related to Leo’s service in the German Army during WWI and his employment, Marion’s school notebooks, clippings regarding Heinz Lichtenstein and Max Lichtenstein, and documents of Hans Wolff (Marion’s future husband). Also included are pages of testimony about Flora and Paula Freyer written by Marion for Vad Vashem.
Immigration papers include correspondence and papers documenting the Freyers’ emigration from Germany in 1938-1939. Included is correspondence from Leo’s American cousin Max Lindner and the National Council of Jewish Women, both of whom helped the family secure visas. There are also two affidavits from Max and Max’s nephew Carlos Israels.
Correspondence includes a letter from Paula Freyer to Leo sent through the American Red Cross in 1942, which was the last letter received from her before she was deported to Auschwitz; postcards from Leo’s cousin Else Loewy in Berlin who was also trying to emigrate; postwar letters from Margarete Montag, a Catholic German woman who provided food and support to Flora and Paula prior to their deportation, her letters describe her last contact with them, their deportation, and conditions in Berlin; and postwar letters to Heinz Lichtenstein from Rabbi Leopold Neuhaus regarding Heinz’s father Max’s death in Theresienstadt and an orphaned child survivor Heinz adopted in 1948.
Photographs include prewar family photographs of the Freyer and Lichtenstein families, as well as a postwar image of Margarete Montag.
- Date
-
inclusive:
1906-1985
bulk: 1938-1953
- Genre/Form
-
Photographs.
Correspondence.
Passports.
Affidavits.
- Extent
-
1 box
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Marion Freyer Wolff
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Record last modified: 2021-11-10 13:00:29
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn623010