John and Dorothy Fried Goldmeier papers

Hans Goldmeier was born on July 20, 1928 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to Isidor and Erna Lippmann Goldmeier. Hans had an older brother, Rolf. In April 1939, the Goldmeiers sent Hans (“John”) and Rolf to England, where a cousin had arranged for the brothers to be cared for with a Jewish family in Sunderland. Isidor and Erna were able to escape to London, where Isidor waited to obtain governmental permission to work and Erna worked as a nursemaid. After the war began in September 1939, the brothers were evacuated to a town in Yorkshire, where they lived with the Scott family on their farm. They visited their parents in London infrequently. In April 1941, Isidor died suddenly of a heart attack. Erna decided that Rolf should attend an ORT training school in Leeds and Hans was sent to the Stoatley Rough boarding school in Haslemere. He remained there with other German Jewish refugee children, as well as some Christian children, until his graduation in 1944. In January 1945, Erna, Rolf, and Hans immigrated to the United States. Hans, now John, enrolled in City College, and worked a series of odd jobs, including in the diamond and in the fur industries. In 1949, Erna Goldmeier married Jose Levy. John graduated with a bachelor's degree in social work from City College in 1951, a master's degree from Tulane in 1953, and spent some time in the military working as a social worker. In December 1961, he married Dorothy Fried (b. 1937), whose parents had emigrated from Germany in 1930. John Goldmeier earned his doctorate of social work at the University of Chicago in 1966 and spent most of his career at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. He and Dorothy had three children. John Goldmeier died on May 14, 2002.

Dorothy Fried Goldmeier was born on December 29, 1937 to Hede (Hedwig Dorothea Nakler) and Hans John Friedländer. Hede Nakler was born in 1901 in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Her older brother, Manfred, died in 1917 as an infantryman in the German Army during World War I. Hans (John) Friedländer was born in 1897 in Breslau. John fought in the German Army during World War II. Hede and John both emigrated to the United States and married in July 1930 in New Jersey. John’s mother, Clara Fried, emigrated to the United States from Germany in April 1940 to join her son’s family.