Furnberg, Erica, 1910-1985

Erica Furnberg (née Loewe) is the creator of this collection. She emigrated from Berlin to New York to escape the Nazis.

Erica was the youngest daughter of Felix Peter Loewe (born May 13,1866) and Margarete Loewe (née Hahn, born May 7, ca. 1870). Margarete and Peter were engaged in May 1894 and got married shortly afterwards. Peter worked in finance in Berlin. Peter died on July 7, 1918. Margarete died in ca. 1935. They are buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Weissensee in Berlin.

Peter and Margarete had three daughters: Magda (born July 16, 1897), Stella (born 1902 or 1903), and Erica (born March 23, 1910). The family lived in Berlin. In the late thirties, Stella emigrated to Charlottenlund in Denmark and Magda moved to Paris and lived there under the name Magdalena / Magdaleina Louve; Erica went to New York in November 1938. There she worked as a private secretary and was also active as a radio performer and later as an amateur producer for plays and musicals. Magda was brought to the French internment camp Gurs on May 23, 1940 and was held there for two years, before she was deported to Auschwitz on August 26, 1942, where she perished. When Gurs was still run by the French, Erica tried to have Magda released so Magda could come to live in the U.S. with her, but all attempts failed or came too late. Stella survived and eventually also moved to New York.

Erica met Fred Furnberg in August 1945 on a vacation. They were married on April 14, 1946.

Fred (in some notes also Fritz) Furnberg (formerly Fürnberg) was born in Austria in 1907. He graduated from the Commercial Academy in Vienna and worked in Paris dealing with fashion goods before he joined his father Samuel Fürnberg's firm where they produced and traded with knitted goods. Fred fled to Birmingham, Alabama in 1938-1939 and studied accounting there. He joined the American Army in January 1943 and moved to New York after he was discharged at the end of 1943. He continued to work as an accountant, export buyer and export manager in the textile sector. Fred died on December 2, 1960.

Erica and Fred had one daughter, Susan Margaret, who was born on April 3, 1951. She graduated from the Hunter College High School in 1969. She went to Albany State University for College and to Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania. Susan died of cancer in February 1982, 30 years old.

The family belonged to the Reform Community of Beth Am in Northern Manhattan, led by Rabbi Israel Raphael Margolies, where Susan also received her "confirmation" in May 1966.

Ruth Inge Loewenstein Love (born 1936) wrote the family memoir that is also included in the collection. She is Fred's niece: her mother was Fred’s sister Trude Furnberg (1908-1991).

From the guide to the Erica Furnberg Collection, 1881-1998, bulk 1887-1969, (Leo Baeck Institute)