Leslie Nichols collection

Mr. Leslie Nichols was a lawyer with the Cleveland, Ohio, firm of Tolles, Hogsett, and Ginn. During World War I, he served as an artillery officer in France but did not see action. After the war, Mr. Nichols' sister moved to Berlin, and lived with a couple named Walter and Sylvia Jaffe. Nicols and his wife, Marie, visited the Jaffes in Germany in 1934. In 1935, with Mr. Jaffe's law practice threatened due to Nazi racial policy (he was half Jewish), Mr. Nichols contacted acquaintances in the Cleveland area to provide support for the couple's immigration from Germany. The Jaffes eventually lost almost all of their property in Germany, but escaped to Paris, where they survived the war.