- Description
- The Stolz and White families papers include biographical material, correspondence, school records, writings, restitution material, and photographs relating to the pre-war, wartime, and post-war experiences of Erika Stolz and her parents, Leon and Rosa, originally of Vienna, Austria. At the beginning of the war Erika was sent on a Kinderstransport to Christian boarding school in England. Leon and Rosa were divorced in Austria before the war. During the war, Leon and his future-wife Hermine fled to Italy and then Shanghai, where they remained until the invasion of the Japanese Imperial Army. Rosa and her future-husband Kurt Hauptmann fled to Italy and eventually the United States. After the war Erika immigrated to the United States to join her mother and stepfather, and Leon later moved to Berlin. The collection also includes biographical material, correspondence, and photographs relating to the experiences of Erika’s husband Dorian White (born Isidor Weizenbaum) in Austria, in a labor camp in France, and immigrating to the United States in 1944.
Biographical materials relating to Erika include a birth certificate, Austrian passport, German passport (Reisepass), a ration book, Red Cross certificates, and documents relating to her passage to the United States. Biographical material relating to Leon include a birth certificate, identification cards for temporary stay in China and for the International Refugee Organization, correspondence relating to his immigration to China, documents regarding his divorce, a passenger list, and a death certificate. Rosa’s documentation includes a copy of her birth certificate, a Polish passport, the marriage agreement with Leon, divorce documentation, immigration paperwork, a marriage certificate with Kurt Hauptmann, and a copy of the death certificate for Kurt. This series also includes Dorian’s Cuban identification card, affidavits and immigration documents, documentation relating to citizenship in the United States and the changing of his name from Isidor Dory Weizenbaum to Dorian Robert White, a certificate of marriage registration with Erika, and a post-war letter about his mother’s tombstone as well as Hermine’s application to extend her temporary stay in the United States and a letter describing experience.
Correspondence includes letters from Leon to Erika while he was in Italy, Shanghai, and Berlin as well as from several letters from Leon to Hermine. Also included are letters from Erika to her mother, Rosa, while Erika was attending boarding school in England. Additional correspondence includes letters to Dorian and mainly post-war correspondence between Hermine and various friends, family members, and organizations.
School records include prewar and wartime report cards, school ID cards, exams, certificates, a class photograph, and writings for Erika in Vienna and England as well as a school ID and certificate for Rosa.
The poesie album was kept by Erika while living in Vienna and includes poetry and drawings. This series also includes a diary Erika started when she was 13 years old and attending school in England. The first entry is dated January 1, 1940 and the last entry is dated 1943. The diary, written in German, English, and a code made of symbols, includes entries, clippings, drawings, and poetry. After finding and reading her diary in 1957, Erika began writing again. The last entry is dated 1958.
Restitution material includes copies and originals of correspondence, documents, forms, financial records, and receipts regarding Leon, Erika, Rose, and Hermine’s efforts to receive restitution for their wartime suffering and loss of property and education.
Subject files include financial documents and receipts for Hermine’s involvement with the Jewish Community of Berlin (Jüdische Gemeinde von Berlin) as well as correspondence and membership information for the Women’s International Zionist Organization, the Jewish National Fund, United Israel Appeal, and Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien. Also included is correspondence relating to speaking engagements for Dr. Henry Winsley-Stolz.
Photographs include originals and color copies. Stolz family photographs include two albums and loose photographs of Erica’s childhood in Austria, attending school in England, and post-war photographs in the United States, including her wedding day to Dorian, as well as pre-war photographs of Leon with his parents, brothers, sisters, and Rosa. Klapholz family photographs include pre-war images of Rosa as a young girl, Max and Julie Klapholz possibly in Poland and later in Vienna, Benedick as a young boy and later with his family, including daughter Marietta, and Rosa with Erika in Vienna and in New York. This series also includes wartime photographs of Dorian White in France and Cuba and post-war with Erika in the United States as well as wartime photographs of Kurt Hauptman in Rome and Vienna and later with Rosa in the United States.
- Date
-
inclusive:
1900-2003
bulk:
1940-1960
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ronald White
- Collection Creator
- Stolz family
White family
- Biography
-
Erika Stolz (later Erica White, 1926-2016) was born in Vienna, Austria on November 18, 1926. Her father, Leon Stolz (1890-1953), was born in Stanisławów, Poland (currently Ivano-Frankivsk , Ukraine) to Efraim (1862-1929) and Katharina (1859-1938) Stolz and had eight siblings, Gedalje (Gustav, 1888-?), Eugenia (Genia, 1891-?), Salomea (Salka, 1893-1961), Berta (1895-?), Emila (1898-1943?), Joachim (Chaim, 1900-1941), Eva (1902-1991), and Ernestyna (1902-1943). Leon moved to Vienna with his siblings around World War I and later became a lawyer. Erika's mother, Rosa Klapholz (Roza, later Stolz and Renee or Rene Hutton, 1901-1986) was born in Vienna to Meilche (Max, 1874-1926) and Margula (Julie, née Pomeranz, 1882-?) Klapholz and had one brother, Benedick (Cylo, 1899-1968). She married Leon in September 1925. In the mid-1930s, Leon and Rosa separated and officially divorced in 1943.
Following the German annexation of Austria, Erika was sent to England on a Kindertransport in January 1939 where she stayed in a boarding school in Slough, outside of London. Benedick, who immigrated earlier, worked for the Refugee Children's Movement and supported Erika's stay. Leon fled to Italy in 1940 and sailed to Shanghai where he lived for the remainder of the war. He later married Hermine Herliczka (or Hermina, later Sternbach then Stolz, born in 1904 to Max and Rosalia in Vienna) in 1948 and lived in Berlin. Rosa and her future husband, Kurt Hauptmann (1901-1976, later Kent Hutton, born in Austria to Emanuel Hauptmann and Golde Westreich) moved to Italy and remained in Rome until the early 1940s when they immigrated to the United States and changed their names to Kent and Renee Hutton. Erika finished her schooling in England and on April 21, 1944 she left for the United States to join her mother and stepfather. She met Dorian White in New York and they married on September 11, 1946 and had a son, Ronald.
Erika's immediate family survived the war, but her grandfather, Efraim Stolz, was deported to Buchenwald and died on November 6, 1939 and Gustav disappeared behind Russian lines. Joachim was an ardent Zionist and signed up for the Kladovo transport to go to Palestine. The boat became stranded in Yugoslavia where he and most of the other passengers were killed. Ernestine and her husband were killed at Auschwitz in 1943.
Dorian White (born Isidor Weizenbaum, 1908-1986) was born on October 4, 1908 in Vienna, Austria to Heinrich (1877-1921) and Zlata (Charlotte, 1877-?) and had three siblings, Leon (1900-?), Arnold (1902-1972), and Oscar (1906-1977). They lived in Vienna where his father worked as a furrier. In 1921 his father passed away and his mother and brother moved to Paris. Following the start of World War II, Dorian and his brother were sent to a labor camp outside of Paris. Dorian escaped and made his way to the southern Free Zone where his mother was living. From there he crossed the border into Spain and later Portugal and sailed to Cuba. He immigrated to the United States in 1944. Dorian's mother died of natural causes in southern France and is buried in Marseille.
