Two dried flower bundles preserved by an Austrian Jewish Kindertransport refugee

Erich Kupferberg was born on June 27, 1931, in Graz, Austria, to Baruch Hersch and Hedwig Baruch Kupferberg. Baruch was born on June 22, 1893, in Gliniany, Poland, to Mirl Kupferberg. Hedwig was born on March 30, 1897, in Lackenbach, Austria, to Karl and Charlotte Blum Baruch. Hedwig had a brother, Siegfried, who was born on May 26, 1895, and was a doctor. Baruch and Hedwig married on June 12, 1927. They lived in Vienna. Baruch had been married previously and had another son, Paul, who was born on September 16, 1920.

Germany annexed Austria on March 12, 1938, an action greeted with enthusiasm by the majority of the population. Germany’s anti-Jewish legislation was extended to Austria. As a result of the violent November 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom, many Austrian Jews made plans to leave the country, including the Kupferberg and Baruch families. Erich’s maternal uncle, Siegfried, his wife Katalin, and their children Hans and Liselotte immigrated to the US and arrived in New York on February 17, 1939. After Kristallnacht, Great Britain eased immigration policies for children under 17 from Germany and German annexed countries. Aid societies arranged Kindertransports to take Jewish children to Great Britain. In early 1939, Erich was sent to London with the assistance of the Refugee Children’s Movement. He lived with a distant relative and then lived in a home in Barnstaple. By 1944, arrangements had been made to send Erich to live with his Uncle Siegfried in New York. Erich boarded the MV Britannic in Liverpool on April 8, and arrived in Boston on April 21.

Erich lived with his uncle’s family in Brooklyn until 1949, when he turned 18. In March 1950, Erich was reunited with his parents. Baruch and Hedwig had escaped Austria on April 18, 1939, and arrived in Shanghai on May 15. The war in Japan ended in September 1945. A few years after the war, they left for Israel, arriving there on December 17, 1948. In September 1949 they returned to Austria where Baruch worked as a bookkeeper and Hedwig as an infant nurse. In early 1950, they arrived in America and settled in Brooklyn. They learned that their extended family had not survived the war. Paul, who had been active in the underground movement, was deported to Gurs internment camp in France in 1941. He perished in the Holocaust but no details are known. Hedwig’s father and stepmother, Karl and Rosa, were deported to Theresienstadt on transport 35 on August 13, 1942. Rosa died on December 4, 1942. Karl died on February 26, 1943. Baruch (now Herman,) age 68, passed away on July 7, 1961. Siegfried, age 94, died on September 27, 1989. Hedwig, age 97, died on February 16, 1995.