Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Red document case used by Lola Stern (later Loy) and her family while emigrating from Germany in 1939 and Shanghai, China, in 1947. The case bears the name of a German insurance company and was likely acquired by Lola’s father, Hugo Stern, through his work as an insurance agent. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, Lola was expelled from her school for being Jewish. To learn some work skills, she moved away from her parents, Hugo and Käthe Stern, and younger sister, Lisa, in Nordhausen. On November 8, 1938, during Kristallnacht, Lola was living in Frankfurt am Main as a domestic servant in a nurse’s house and helped care for those injured during the attacks. While in Erfurt on business, Hugo was arrested, beaten, and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. The Nordhausen Gestapo held Käthe and Lisa overnight in the police station. After four weeks, Hugo was released and told he had six months to leave Germany. In March 1939, Hugo acquired tickets aboard the MS Victoria bound for Japanese-controlled Shanghai, China. In late April, the Stern family traveled to Genoa, Italy, where they boarded the ship. After a month-long journey, the Sterns arrived in Shanghai, where they received assistance from Jewish aide organizations. The family settled into a small apartment, Lola found work as a waitress, Hugo sold second-hand clothing, and Lisa returned to school. In May 1943, the Japanese forced stateless refugees, like the Sterns, into a closed ghetto in Hongkew. In May 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allies, though frequent air raids continued in Shanghai until Japan’s surrender in August. Most of the family’s relatives in Europe perished in the Holocaust. The Stern family immigrated to the US in May 1947.
- Date
-
emigration:
1939-1947
- Geography
-
emigration:
Germany
emigration: China
en route: United States
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Gary Loy.
- Markings
- front, lower right corner, impressed, gold-colored ink : Friedrich Wilhelm / Lebensversicherung / Berlin [Friedrich Wilhelm Life Insurance Berlin]
- Contributor
-
Subject:
Lola S. Loy
Previous owner: Lola S. Loy
- Biography
-
Irma Karola (Lola) Stern (later Loy, 1923-2003) was born in Redwitz an der Rodach to Hugo (1891-1965) and Käthe Gutmann (1900-1995) Stern. Hugo was born in Mulhouse, and had four sisters, including Elli, Erna, and Frieda. Käthe was also born in Redwitz, and had one brother and one sister. Lola had one younger sister, Lisa (later Basch, 1932-2016). Irma often used her nickname, Lola. Her mother’s family had lived in Redwitz for several generations, and ran a rattan furniture business. Her father, Hugo, was a proud World War I veteran, who had been awarded an Iron Cross medal after being wounded. He worked as an insurance agent, and as a merchant. The family later settled in Nordhausen, and lived comfortably. The family as assimilated and spoke German at home, but did celebrate the high holidays.
On January 30, 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and the Nazi regime passed legislation to disenfranchise the Jewish population. In 1937, when Lola was 14, she was expelled from school for being Jewish. She worked with an English tutor and briefly attended a private business school, until the Jewish proprietor was forced to close it. In mid-November 1937, Lola’s parents sent her to live with the Haas family, a Jewish family in Konigshofen im Grabfeld, where she learned about store management. She was with them until mid-May 1938, when the family was forced to give up their business and home. That October, Lola’s parents sent her to Frankfurt, where her paternal aunts, Erna and Frieda, lived. Lola’s young age prevented her from training as a nurse, so she worked as a domestic servant in the nurse’s home associated with the Jewish hospital. Lola’s parents wanted to leave Germany and applied for visas to whatever countries were accepting Jews. Although Käthe’s brother in New York City gave the family had an affidavit of support for the US, the large number of other refugees meant their quota number was too high to be called upon in the next year or two.
On November 8, 1938, during Kristallnacht, Lola spent the night at the hospital caring for the Jewish men who had been injured. Her father, Hugo, was on a business trip and boarding with a Jewish family in Erfurt when he was rounded-up with the local Jewish men. Several of Hugo’s ribs were broken while being beaten and herded through the streets by the authorities. Hugo was transported to Buchenwald concentration camp. The doctor there agreed to tape the ribs, but warned Hugo not to let anyone know he was hurt because it would make him a target. Lola’s mother and sister, Käthe and Lisa, were arrested by the Nordhausen Gestapo. Although they were released the next day, Käthe returned to the police headquarters daily to enquire about Hugo’s situation. One week later, they were forced to leave their apartment again and move into cramped quarters with other Jewish families. Käthe continued going to the headquarters and train station for news of Hugo. After about three weeks, she was told that Hugo would be home soon, but that he would need to leave Germany within the next six months, or he would be returned to Buchenwald. When Hugo returned, Lisa didn’t recognize him because his head was shaved and he was emaciated.
In January 1939, Lola applied for a passport in case the family had to leave in a hurry. Hugo and Käthe continued applying for visas, and Hugo checked daily for passage on an outbound ship at the offices of the Italian shipping line, Lloyd Triesto. Hugo’s relatives in Luxembourg encouraged him to sneak over the border at night, promising to wait for him there. He eventually decided to take the risk. The day he planned to cross, Hugo received a coded telegram from them urging him not to try because the authorities shot anyone trying to cross illegally. Hugo did not make the attempt and returned home in March. Several days later, while passing the shipping office, a travel agent called out to Hugo and explained he had just received a set of first-class tickets for the MS Victoria bound for Shanghai, China. The original ticketholders had secured tickets aboard the MS St. Louis to Cuba, and opted to travel there instead. The MS Victoria was scheduled to sail from Genoa, Italy, in late April, so Lola’s family scrambled to acquire the necessary German exit visas. Shanghai was an open port at that time, so they did not need entry visas, just ship passage. The Stern family reunited with Lola in Frankfurt where they said goodbye to their relatives before boarding the train to Genoa. Hugo’s sisters tried to convince the family to stay, or at least not make the children go, because they believed that things would be fine in Germany.
The journey, via the Suez Canal, took roughly four weeks and stopped at many ports along the way. Most of the other passengers were also Jews trying to flee from Europe. In Shanghai, the ship was met by representatives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC or Joint), who helped the refugees settle in. The Stern family was taken to a shelter in an old school in Hongkew, an industrial area of the International Settlement section of the city, where they received supplies and food. Eventually, the family moved into a small apartment, which Käthe tended while Hugo sold second-hand clothing. Lisa attended school while Lola found a position as a waitress in a Jewish-run restaurant and gave all of her earnings to her parents.
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The following day, Japan declared war on Great Britain, bombed British ships docked in Shanghai harbor, and occupied the city. British and American citizens were incarcerated in POW camps. On May 18, 1943, prompted by Nazi Germany, the Japanese forced the stateless refugees into a ghetto in Hongkew. The Stern family already lived within the borders, but couldn’t leave the ghetto without a pass. These passes were controlled by a cruel man named Goya, and were often denied. This shift caused many businesses to close and forced many to live on very limited rations in the shelters. Hugo no longer sold clothing, and instead made eggnog and sauerkraut for several businesses. Between his work and Lola’s job, the family was able to stay in their apartment.
In May, they learned of Germany’s surrender to the Allies. There were frequent air raids on Shanghai until Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 14. Later, the Sterns learned that almost all their European relatives had been killed during the Holocaust, including Hugo’s sisters, Erna and Frieda, and Käthe’s sister and brother-in-law, and their children. His sister, Elli, was living in Palestine. Another of Hugo’s sisters was married to a non-Jew and survived in hiding. From January 1946 to April 1947, Lola managed a chain store that sold ladies clothing in Shanghai. The Stern family decided to immigrate to the US, where Käthe’s brother lived. They arrived in San Francisco, California, on May 16, 1947, aboard the SS General W. H. Gordon, and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In November 1938, Lola married Fred Loy (born Alfred Löwenstein, 1910-1999) in Cleveland, Ohio, where they settled. Fred was another German Jewish refugee that had lived in Shanghai, and an acquaintance from her time there. They had one child. Lola worked for Cleveland Fabric Shops (now Jo-Ann Fabrics) and Herman Textile, Co. In 1949, Lisa married Gregory Basch (b. 1929), another German Jewish refugee from Shanghai. The couple settled in Cleveland and had three children. Gregory ran a chemical business and Lisa worked as a secretary.
Physical Details
- Language
- German
- Classification
-
Containers
- Category
-
Cases
- Object Type
-
Document containers (aat)
- Genre/Form
- Containers.
- Physical Description
- Rectangular, soft-sided, bi-fold document case with a slightly-padded, red cloth cover textured to resemble leather. The cover has a rounded spine and corners, and the cloth wraps around the thin edges to the interior. The cloth is sewn along the inner edges of the case with red thread, forming a narrow border. Shiny, brown cloth resembling moiré silk, lines the interior and forms two, full-height inner pockets. Each pocket consists of multiple layers of cloth stitched together with brown thread to form an approximately three-inch wide rectangular panel. The panel is sewn onto the cover along the exterior long and bottom sides, creating a slide pocket. A company name is impressed in gold-colored, Fraktur-style font on the lower right corner of the front cover. Overall, the cover of the case is heavily worn, scuffed, and stained from use. The textured, exterior surface has been worn away in several areas to reveal the weave of the underlying cloth, and the gold coloring has worn away from much of the lettering. There is a large stain on the back and several smaller stains on the front and interior.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 8.125 inches (20.638 cm) | Width: 5.250 inches (13.335 cm) | Depth: 0.125 inches (0.318 cm)
- Materials
- overall : cloth, thread, ink
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The document case was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2017 by Gary Loy, the son of Fred and Lola Stern Loy.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-08-24 13:46:47
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn625668
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Also in Löwenstein and Stern families collection
The collection consists of document cases, documents, and photographs relating to the experiences of Fred Loy (born Alfred Löwenstein), Lola Stern Loy, Julius Loewenstein, and their families in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, and China before and during the Holocaust, and in the United States after World War II.
Date: 1900-1981
Löwenstein and Stern families papers
Document
Documents and photographs regarding the experiences of Alfred Löwenstein and Lola Stern, both of whom separately fled Germany for Shanghai aboard the MN Victoria in 1939, survived the Holocaust in Shanghai, and later married in the United States. Also contains biographical information on their families, including the deaths of Alfred’s parents at Theresienstadt. Biographical materials of Alfred and Lola include German passports, employment references, identification cards, and documents related to immigration to the United States. There are documents related to Alfred’s parents, Siegmund and Sophie Löwenstein, including birth certificate and copies of archival documents from “Beit Theresienstadt” regarding their deaths at Theresienstadt, and documents of his brother Julius who survived in a work camp. There are also a small amount of documents of Lola’s parents, Hugo and Käthe Stern, who also survived in Shanghai. Additionally, there is an annotated poster of the MN Victoria. Photographs include prewar family photographs and depictions of Alfred’s and the Sterns’ travels on the MN Victoria in 1939. The photograph album primarily depicts the Sterns’ trip aboard the MN Victoria in 1939, but also includes postwar photographs of the Sterns’ immigration to the United States in 1947 and their lives in Philadelphia.
Case and paper insert owned by a former German Jewish forced laborer
Object
Black document case acquired and used by Julius Loewenstein (born Löwenstein) after immigrating to the United States following the end of World War II (1939-1945). The case was used to hold his US naturalization certificate and important insurance papers. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, many anti-Jewish laws severely restricted the daily lives of nineteen-year-old Julius, his parents, Siegmund and Sophie Löwenstein, and older brother, Alfred. Julius made his way to Switzerland as a refugee in August 1938. During the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938, Siegmund and Sophie were living in Frankfurt am Main. Siegmund was arrested and transported to Buchenwald concentration camp and held for several weeks. At the end of April 1939, Julius’ brother, Alfred, boarded the MS Victoria, in Genoa, Italy, and set sail for Japanese-controlled Shanghai, China. Alfred found work as a representative for the Argo Company. During the war, Julius spent several years in a labor camp for emigrants in Nuovo Locarno, Switzerland. He worked for Losinger & Co. A.G., and received monetary support from Jewish aide societies. From January 1945 to August 1946, Julius worked as an office assistant and accountant for the Swiss Jewish Aid to Refugees, Zurich. Julius immigrated to the US in August 1946. Alfred immigrated to the US in 1947, and Americanized his name to Fred Loy. The brothers later learned that their parents were deported to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1942. In January 1943, Siegmund died in the camp, and Sophie was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland, where she perished.