Biography
Albert Nussbaum (the uncle of donor Milton Koch) is the son of Gustave and Helaine (Kleinberg) Nussbaum. He was born February 4, 1898 in Monneren, Luxembourg. Albert had a brother, Rene (b. 1902), a sister Jeanne (b. 1900) and twin sisters, Margaretha (Martha) and Magdalena (b. 1907). Gustave Nussbaum owned a successful clothing factory called Palais de l'Habillement in Luxembourg. After his death in 1929, Albert took over the business. In addition to his business Albert played a prominent role in the Jewish community of Luxembourg. He served as treasurer of ESRA, the central Jewish welfare organization, from 1929 until his departure in the fall of 1940, and took a leading part in organizing assistance for Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria. In recognition of his contributions, Albert was elected to the Consistoire Israelite de Luxembourg (the representative Jewish body of the Duchy) in 1937. Albert's sister Margaretha fell in love with a Jewish refugee (originally from Poland) named Max (Moses) Koch. Max had been interned in Dachau for six months after Kristallnacht and was released only after his sister in Palestine (Miriam Serebrenik) used her familial connection to Robert Serebrenik, Grand Rabbi of the Duchy of Luxembourg, to secure him a place to go. Soon after his arrival in Luxembourg in April 1939, Max met Margaretha Nussbaum. The following year, in September 1940, the couple was wed and departed for Havana, Cuba, where their son Milton was born on December 28, 1944. Following the German invasion of Luxembourg on May 10, 1940, Albert became president of the Consistoire and began to devote all his time to the rescue of Jews under Nazi domination. When it became clear that the Jewish community had no alternative to deportation but emigration from Europe, Albert went to Lisbon, Portugal to organize their orderly emigration in cooperation with the American Joint Distribution Committee, the HICEM and the Portuguese Refugee Committee. To facilitate his task the Luxembourg government appointed him Commissioner of Emigration, an attache to the Minister of Justice. His most intense period of activity came between February and September of 1941. In February the American consulate in Luxembourg received authorization to issue immigration visas, and by June that consulate was closed down. During these months Albert worked tirelessly to arrange transportation for the thousands of refugees who had to depart from the last open port in Europe before their visas expired. In recognition of his abilities, Albert was appointed director of the JDC's new Transmigration Office in Lisbon on May 15, 1941. Albert continued in this capacity until he left Lisbon for the Dominican Republic in January 1942. He arrived in the U.S. on May 10, 1942. All his siblings were able to emigrate. Jeanne and her husband Joeph Nussbaum, togeteher with their two girls, escaped in Switzerland. Magdalena and her husband Fritz Fraenkel came to Cuba in 1940.
