Sonja Speyer Echt papers

Sonja Speyer Echt (born Sofie Speyer or Speier, 1926-) was born on 20 August 1926 in Guxhagen, Germany to Emanuel and Betty Speyer. Emanuel (1884-1941?) was born in Guxhagen in 1884 to Salomon and Regine Speyer. Betty (née Neumann, 1894-) was born in 1894 in Burgpreppach, Germany to Wolf and Sofie (née Friedmann) Neumann. Sonja had one sister, Rita (later Rita Güthermann, b. 1923), and one brother, Siegfried (b. 1930). The family kept a kosher household. Emanuel was a World War I veteran and he and Betty married in 1920 in Kassel, Germany. He ran his own business and Betty did his bookkeeping.

Fearing for her safety after receiving beatings from both the students and teachers at her school in Guxhagen in 1937, Sonja’s parents sent her to Kassel. Her mother’s brother Solomon lived there and helped place her in a Jewish orphanage. He arranged for her to go on a Kindertransport and in February 1938 she boarded the SS Manhattan for the United States. After arriving in New York, she was placed in Columbus, Ohio as a foster child.

Sonja’s father was arrested during Kristallnacht in November 1938 and briefly imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp until 15 December 1938. Her parents and siblings were deported from Guxhagen to the Riga ghetto on 6 December 1941. Emanuel, Betty, and Siegfried likely perished in the ghetto or at Auschwitz. Sonja’s sister Rita survived the Holocaust and immigrated to the United States in 1946 aboard the SS Marine Perch.