- Description
- The collection documents the pre-war lives of the Bujakowski and Brager families of Poland and Germany, including the medical career of Hans Adolf Bujakowski (later Henry Adolph Boyer) and his family’s immigration to the United States from Berlin, Germany in 1938. Included are biographical and identification documents, papers relating to Hans’s medical career, immigration, restitution paperwork, and photographs.
Personal papers consist of biographical and identification papers, paperwork related to Hans’s medical career, a small amount of correspondence, immigration documents, and restitution records. Biographical papers included Auguste’s birth certificate, a German driver’s license of Hans, and a swimming certificate of Helga’s. Hans’s medical papers document his studies at the University of Jena and the University of Berlin, and his medical career in Berlin and New York. Correspondence primarily consists of postcards and letters written by Helga. Immigration documents include the Abmeldung from Berlin dated 22 August 1938, an inventory of items brought with them to New York, and naturalization certificates of Hans and Auguste.
Photographs include pre-war depictions of Hans and his family, including his brothers Kurt, Walter, and Fritz; Hans with his wife Auguste and their daughter Helga; and Auguste’s family including her parents and brother. The loose photograph album pages primarily depict family life, gatherings, and vacations.
- Date
-
inclusive:
circa 1898-1972
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of the family of Helga Bujakowski (Boyer) James
- Collection Creator
- Bujakowski family
- Biography
-
Hans Adolf Bujakowski (later Henry Adolph Boyer, 1897-1964) was born on 13 June 1897 in Wrocław, Poland to Julius and Julie Bujakowski (1859-1942, née Kraemer, born in Hohenlohehütte). He had three brothers: Walter, Fritz (1901-1943), and Kurt (1902-1942). Hans studied medicine at the Universities of Jena and Berlin, and worked as a doctor in Berlin. He and his brothers all served in World War I, and his brother Walter was killed in 1918. He married Auguste Brager on 16 March 1923 in Berlin, Germany.
Auguste Bujakowski (b. 1898, née Brager, later Augusta Boyer) was born on 15 August 1898 in Hamburg, Germany to Cecilia and Ivan Brager. She had one brother: Karl.
Hans and Auguste’s daughter Helga was born on 1 October 1924 in Berlin, Germany. The family was secular, and Hans worked as a general practitioner. Helga attended public schools until Jewish students were expelled. She later attended the Jewish Goldschmidt School.
Hans, Auguste, and Helga received their visas on 12 August 1938 and then left Germany for Liverpool, England. They sailed aboard the RMS Samaria to New York on 27 August 1938, arriving on 5 September 1938. The family settled in Long Island where Hans continued to work as a doctor. Hans and Auguste became naturalized citizens in 1944. Helga later married Philip James (1890-1975) and they had two children: Philip and Vivien.
Hans’s mother was deported with Transport I/7 from Berlin to Theresienstadt on 17 June 1942 where she perished. His brother Fritz, along with his wife Else (née Loewinsohn, 1902-1943) and son Walter (1928-1943) were deported from Germany to Auschwitz where they perished in 1943. His other brother Kurt fled Nazi Germany for Vienna, Austria in 1936 and worked as an editorial assistant. He, his wife Dina (1904-1942) and their daughter Stephanie (1937-1942) immigrated to France after the German annexation of Austria in 1938. On 9 September 1942 the family was deported on Transport 30 from the Drancy internment camp to Auschwitz where they perished. Auguste’s parents immigrated to Uruguay around 1940 and survived the war.
