Wolf, Max, 1863-1932

Eugen Wolf (born in Rhein-Hesse in 1893) initially trained as a banker in Mainz and worked for the Dresdner Bank in Dresden, Saxony, for two years. After the death of his father he took over the family farming and wine-growing business. He married Johanna Mann (born 1895) from Guntersblum in 1919 and continued the farming business of his father-in-law. They had one daughter, Marianne, who was born in Mainz in 1932.

It appears from the correspondence that during the November pogroms in 1938 the family house was vandalised and Eugen Wolf was imprisoned at a concentration camp. Marianne was sent to stay with relatives in Dusseldorf. As the family needed to emigrate urgently, Eugen asked his cousin Max Wolf in London for help. Eugen had already obtained an affidavit from a cousin in the United States and intended to stay temporarily in the UK whilst waiting for an American visa. In the meantime the family had to sell their house and business. In February 1939 they moved into a flat in Frankfurt where they were reunited with their daughter. Eugen and Johanna were unable to part with their only child when she was offered a place on the Kindertransport in June 1939. They then made an application to the British Home Office for visas for the whole family.

The family did not manage to leave Germany in time before the outbreak of the Second World War. They were deported to Minsk Ghetto, where they perished.

From the guide to the Max Wolf: correspondence regarding the emigration of Eugen Wolf's family, 1938-1939 and 2001, (Wiener Library)