Florence Mendheim, 1899-1984

Florence Mendheim was born in Illinois in 1899, but raised in New York where she spent the rest of her life. She was the daughter of German Jewish immigrants and had two brothers. After attending Washington Irving High School, she completed New York Public Library training in 1918, and worked in various NYPL branch locations over the next two decades. Sometime around 1933, Ms. Mendheim began her undercover surveillance of the Nazi-associated group “Friends of the New Germany.” She reported her activities to Rabbi Jacob Xenab Cohen, who was connected with both the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and the American Jewish Congress, but the full extent of this project is not entirely clear. In the course of this undertaking, Ms. Mendheim used at least three pseudonyms: KQX (for correspondence with the Rabbi), Gertrude Mueller (for the Nazis), and Anna Hitler (for conducting genealogical research on Adolf Hitler). After 1936, correspondence between Mendheim and Rabbi Cohen seems to have decreased sharply. Professional correspondence with her library superiors from the mid-1940s indicates that Ms. Mendheim suffered chronic health problems that led to her retirement, although she lived to the age of 85. She observed kosher dietary laws and never married. She was survived by Arthur, her younger brother, when she passed away in 1984.

From the guide to the Florence Mendheim Collection of Anti-Semitic Propaganda, 1917-1994, bulk 1922-1948, (Leo Baeck Institute)