Prayer book

Richard Weilheimer papers

Document

The Richard Weilheimer papers include biographical materials, correspondence, a watercolor booklet hand-made in Gurs, and photographic materials documenting the Weilheimer, Wetzler, and Stern families from Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, Germany. Documents reflect the families’ prewar lives in Germany, their deportation to the Gurs concentration camp in southern France in 1940, Richard and Ernst Weilheimer’s relocation to a children’s home and immigration to the United States in 1942, Kurt and Nelly Stern’s earlier immigration to the United States in 1937, and the memorialization of their family members killed in the Holocaust. Biographical materials include identification papers and birth, vaccination, marriage, registration, and death certificates documenting the Weilheimer family as well as memorials and funeral speeches created upon Lilly’s death at Gurs. Some of the documents are accompanied by notes or labels created by Richard Weilheimer. Correspondence primarily consists of letters and postcards exchanged among Weilheimer, Wetzler, and Stern family members and their friends. Early correspondence documents Kurt and Nelly Stern’s courtship and marriage in Germany. Wartime correspondence documents life in Germany, southern France, and the internment camps at Gurs, Les Milles, and Recebedou. Alice Resch Synnestedt’s 1997 and 1998 letters retrace her memories of the German children in Aspet. The handmade watercolor booklet was created by Eva Liebhold (1921-1942). Eva was born September 12, 1921 in Mannheim to Michael and Fanny Liebhold. She was evacuated with her family to Gurs in October 1940, deported via Drancy to Auschwitz in August 1942, and killed. Her booklet depicts scenes of daily life in the camp at Gurs. Photographic materials include loose family photographs; copy prints of liberated concentration camp prisoners; a baby book containing photographs of Richard Weilheimer and information about his childhood; a Weilheimer family album containing prewar pictures of the family; and a Weilheimer, Wetzler, and Stern memorial album containing family photographs, original wartime tracing documents, and memorials to lost family members. Many of the loose family photographs are accompanied by captions created by Richard Weilheimer.