Netzorg family

Morton I. Netzorg and Katherine S. Netzorg were both born in 1884. Morton was a Michigan native and a University of Michigan graduate (Literature, 1910). They came to the Philippines in 1911 to teach in the Philippine public schools as part of the Tomasites teacher corps. They had three children: Morton Jacob (born in 1912), called by most "Jock", David Leon, and Leah. Morton and Katherine soon became prominent and active members of the Manila Jewish community, public figures, and business owners. In the 1930s Morton I. worked on bringing European Jewish refugees to the Philippines as the Jewish Refugee Committee secretary. After the Japanese forces occupied Manila on January 2, 1942 Morton I. and Katherine were imprisoned in the Santo Tomas internment camp. They were liberated by the American forces in early February 1945. In April 1945 Morton became Regional Director of the Manila branch of the National Jewish Welfare Board and worked to organize community services and activities, and services for Jewish military personnel in the Philippines. In spring 1946 Morton I. Netzorg returned to the United States and died very suddenly shortly after his arrival. Katherine, who also returned, died in 1949. David L. Netzorg died of malaria in Japanese POW camp in 1942. Leah (married name Stine) resided in the United States.

Morton J. Netzorg arrived in the United States before the start of the War. There he met Hannelore "Floh" Fuld (born in 1923), a Jewish emigrant from Berlin, Germany . Hannelore subsequently changed her name to Petra and was known as Petra or Pete for the rest of her life. Morton J. and Petra were married in 1941 and had two children, Susan and David.

In the 1950s the Netzorgs settled in Detroit, Michigan and opened the Cellar Book Shop specializing in material published in and about the Southeast Asia region and the Philippines and the Pacific Islands in particular, as well as East and South Asia, and Africa. Their business became the essential source of material dedicated to these regions in North America. Morton acquired warehouses of books, maps and other Filipiniana material, and shipped them to Detroit. He built the largest collection of Philippine children's book and textbooks. Morton himself became one of the most important bibliographers of the Philippines. He published extensively in Kinaadman (Wisdom), journal published in the Philippines, and other scholarly journals, and authored a number of important Filipiniana bibliographies and bibliographical essays, notably about children's literature and about the World War II period in the Philippines, as well as memoirs.

Morton J. Netzorg died in 1995. Petra Fuld Netzorg continued running the Cellar Book Shop for a few years until her retirement. She died in 2008.

Petra's mother Charlotte "Lotte" Fuld and her younger sister Barbara "Bracha" (born in 1926) left Germany for England in 1938, then settled in the British Mandate Palestine in 1939. Petra's father Lothar Fuld stayed in Nazi Germany. He committed suicide after the pogroms of November 1938. As a teenager Bracha joined the Jewish Resistance movement against the British authorities in Palestine. She was killed in action during operation "Wingate Night" (March 27, 1946), when the Resistance units attempting to help illegal immigrants on the S.S. Wingate to land in Tel Aviv were attacked by British forces.

Lotte Fuld together with Petra and Morton established Bracha and Lotte Fuld Memorial Collection at the Jewish National and University Library in the late 1950s. Lotte resided in Israel then moved to California. Lotte Fuld died in 1968.

From the guide to the Netzorg Family papers, late 1880s-2012, 1938-1998, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)