Hauer and Honig families papers

Gunter Hauer was born on 7 May 1919 in Berlin, Germany to Dagobert and Gertrud Hauer. Dagobert (b. 1873) was born in Vandsburg, Germany (Więcbork, Poland). He served with German army on the Russian front during World War I and was awarded the Iron Cross. He married Gertrud Lesser from Erfurt, Germany around 1900. Dagobert worked in the materials department in the N. Israel Department Store in Berlin.

After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Gunter was prevented from attending school. His father lost his job and Gertrud began working to support the family. After Kristallnacht in November 1938, the family began searching for ways to emigrate from Germany. Quotas and restrictions made the search difficult, but the family learned that they could immigrate to Shanghai without a visa. They spent their family’s savings on tickets to Shanghai from a Russian travel agency, but the tickets turned out to be fraudulent. Dagobert’s friend lent them money to purchase legitimate tickets for passage to Shanghai aboard the Terukuni Maru for Dagobert, Gertrud, Gunter, Dagobert’s older brother Heinrich and his wife Metha, Gertrud’s cousin Paula Haushalter, her daughter Else Eikelman, and her granddaughter Inge Eikelman. They travelled by train to Trieste, Italy and then boarded the ship to Shanghai. They learned during their journey that Germany had invaded Poland. After they arrived in Shanghai Gunter and his parents found a one-room apartment. With the help of a friend from Berlin, Gunter got a job selling typewriters and contracts for typewriter cleaning. His parents were elderly, so he was primarily responsible for the financial support for his family. They also received some additional support from Jewish relief organizations. Gunter was active in local sports clubs, playing field hockey and soccer.

In December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the Americans entered the war. The Japanese took control of Shanghai, and by February 1943 required all “stateless” refugees to move to a low income section of the city called the “Designated Zone” or the Shanghai ghetto. They moved into one of the barracks there, where conditions were very difficult. In addition to his work with typewriters, Gunter had been working for a wealthy Russian Jew named Fineland. In order to leave the ghetto and continue this work, he was required to have a monthly pass, which was issued by Kanoh Ghoya, the Japanese ex-vice chief of the Stateless Refugees' Affairs Bureau. Gunter was also required to participate in the Pao Chia, a patrol group created by the occupying Japanese forces.

While living in the Designated Zone, Gunter’s father became very ill. He went to a Chinese hospital, but the language barrier hindered their efforts to care for him, and he died not much later. Gunter and his mother prepared to make the trip to the cemetery, which was located outside the ghetto. Ghetto residents were only allowed to go there for funerals, so other ghetto residents who wished to visit their loved ones’ graves joined the Hauer family on their trip. On the way back, the group took a trolley, and Gunter offered a seat to a young woman named Hella Honig, a fellow refugee from Berlin. They began dating and planned to marry after the war. Gunter’s mother passed away less than a year after his father’s death.

After the end of World War II, there was a big presence of U.S. soldiers in Shanghai. Gunter was employed with the U.S. Port Command, working with GMC trucks and parts. Gunter and Hella married on 2 March 1947. They immigrated to the United States in July 1947. They initially settled in Cincinnati, Ohio where Gunter found a job as a shipper for King Records. Four months later, he was transferred to New York where he became a branch manager. Gunter and Hella’s first son, Frankie, was born there in 1948. Gunter became involved in the wholesale record business, where he promoted and sold records to radio stations. After working there three years, he took a job with Gotham Records in Philadelphia. From there, he went on to work at the newly formed Universal Record Distributing Corporation, where he worked for the next twelve years. In the mid-1960s he handled promotion for Epic and Dot Records, and he went on to become a prominent executive for Atlantic records in New York. Gunter and Hella had two more children, David and Gail.

Nearly all of Gunter’s extended family perished during the Holocaust.

Hella Honig (1925-2012) was born on 5 November 1925 in Berlin to Rosa and Herman Honig. The family was wealthy and fled Berlin to Shanghai to escape Nazi persecution. She met Gunter Hauer while living in Shanghai as a refugee. They married in 1947 and immigrated to the United States the same year.