Leo Baeck institute

Stefan Zweig was born November 28, 1881, in Vienna, Austria into a family of wealthy industrialist. He studied in Austria, France, and Germany, earning his doctoral degree at the University of Vienna. After a short stop as literary editor of the Neue Freie Presse under Theaodor Herzl, Stefan Zweig became a most prolific and widely read critic and author of novels, biographies, plays, etc. In 1913 he settled in Salzburg, getting married to Friderike von Winternitz in 1914. During World War I he worked in the archives of the Austrian Armed Forces and became afterwards one of the great proponents of peaceful coexistence in Europe, living in Salzburg and travelling widely. After Austria’s Anschluss to Nazi Germany in 1938, Zweig became a British citizen, and in 1940, after a lecture tour in South America, he settled in Brazil. Disillusioned and isolated, Zweig committed suicide with his second wife, Charlotte E. Altmann, in Petrópolis, near Rio de Janeiro on February 23, 1942.

From the guide to the Stefan Zweig autographs collection, 1915-1942, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)

German rabbi, 1808-1888, influenced the development of Orthodox Judaism.

From the guide to the Samson Raphael Hirsch Family Collection, 1835-1940, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)

From the guide to the Samson Raphael Hirsch Family Collection, 1835-1940, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)

From the guide to the Samson Raphael Hirsch Family Collection, 1835-1940, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)

From the guide to the Samson Raphael Hirsch Family Collection, 1835-1940, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)

Bertha Pappenheim was born in Vienna in 1859 into a well-to-do family. After her father’s death in 1881 Bertha Pappenheim got ill and became a patient of Sigmund Freud, who later referred to her in his writings as Anna O. Politically active as a Jewish woman, Bertha von Pappenheim founded the Jewish Women's Association (Jüdischer Frauenbund) in 1905. She also founded a home for unwanted girls, unmarried mothers and their children in Neu Isenburg in 1907. Bertha Pappenheim fought against international white-slavery of women and founded clubs where young women could get help. She translated Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" into German. She died 1936 in Neu-Isenburg.

From the guide to the Bertha Pappenheim Collection, 1903-1998, bulk 1903-1936, (Leo Baeck Institute)

In 1933, the plaintiffs, the Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund (Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities) and the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Bern (Jewish Congregation Bern), sued the Swiss Nazi party ( Bund Nationalsozialistischer Eidgenossen ), a young man named Silvio Schnell, and several others for distributing an edition of the antisemetic hoax "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." The trial hinged on whether the Protocols were real or a forgery, and in 1935, after extensive testimony, the judge found the defendants guilty and noted in his decision that he was convinced that the Protocols were a forgery.

From the guide to the Bern Trial on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion Collection, Jews in Switzerland Collection, undated, 1921-1936, bulk 1934-1935, (Leo Baeck Institute)

Heinrich Graetz was born October 31, 1817 in Posen, Russia (today Poland). He studied at universities in Breslau and Jena, before settling in Breslau, where he taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His work Geschichte der Juden was translated into many other languages and ignited worldwide interest in Jewish history. He died September 7, 1891 and was buried in Breslau.

From the guide to the Heinrich Graetz Collection, 1868-1978, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)

Grubel was Secretary and Sybil Milton was Chief Archivist at the Leo Baeck Institute; Tal was a visiting professor in the Department of Religious Thought and Vartan Gregorian was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, both at the University of Pennsylvania. Tal initiated an inquiry at the Leo Baeck Institute, on behalf of Gregorian.

From the description of Correspondence to Adolf Klarmann, 1969, 1977. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155863790

B’nai B’rith (Sons of the Covenant) is a Jewish fraternal benevolent society founded in New York in 1843. In the 1940s, recent German-Jewish émigrés voiced a desire to establish their own lodge of brethren within the order of B’nai B’rith District No. 1 in New York. After initial opposition, the president of District No. 1, Myron Sulzberger, granted a charter for such a lodge under the name "Independence Lodge No. 1531." Soon after the installment on April 23, 1944, the name was changed to "Leo Baeck Lodge." There was an associated women's chapter, the Leo Baeck Chapter no. 450, B’nai B’rith Women.

From the guide to the B'nai B'rith Leo Baeck Lodge No. 1531 (New York, N.Y.) Collection, Undated, 1918-1984, (Leo Baeck Institute)

Heinrich Heine (Dec. 13, 1797 – Feb. 17, 1856) was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. His political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities. Heine spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris.

From the guide to the Heinrich Heine Collection, 1823-1997, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)

Born in Vienna on February 2, 1878, Martin Buber studied philosophy and art history at various European universities, became active in the Zionist movement, and worked as an author, editor, and publisher. Moving to Berlin in 1906, and to Heppenheim near Frankfurt am Main in 1916, he published highly regarded philosophical and theological works. Buber emigrated to Palestine in 1938, where he taught at Hebrew University in Jerusalem until his death on June 13, 1965.

From the guide to the Martin Buber Collection, 1897-1980, bulk 1921-1929, (Leo Baeck Institute)

Theresienstadt holds a unique position among the concentration camps and ghettos created by the German Nazi regime from 1933-1945. From the time the Nazis turned the then Czechoslovak city of Terezín (German: Theresienstadt) into a camp-ghetto in November 1941 to the liberation of prisoners in May 1945, different sections of the city and its surrounding areas functioned as a Gestapo prison, a Jewish ghetto, a forced labor camp, and a transit camp that eventually sent prisoners to death camps in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Gestapo prison was set up in the Small Fortress on the edge of the city and held mainly Czech and Slovak political prisoners. Once the local residents of the city of Theresienstadt were moved out, the city itself was used as a ghetto and labor camp for Jews from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark, and Hungary.

Theresienstadt also played a role as propaganda for the Nazi regime. The widespread deportation of Jews from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia began in 1941 under the pretense that these individuals were being sent to work in the East. Since it could hardly be believed that the old or frail being deported were being sent to work, the Nazis set up Theresienstadt as a supposed “spa town” for retirees. Theresienstadt was also the destination of Jews of sufficient renown that their deportation would cause some to inquire after them. While lectures, concerts, and other events were held in Theresienstadt and a library of some 60,000 volumes was maintained, prisoners suffered inhumane living conditions and often lived in constant fear.

Starting in the fall of 1942, many transports from Theresienstadt took prisoners directly to the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Theresienstadt was liberated by Soviet troops in early May 1945.

References

Niewyk, Donald L. and Francis Nicosia. The Columbia Reference Guide to the Holocaust. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.

Terezín Memorial. “The Police Prison in the Small Fortress.” Retrieved 13 March 2013 from http://www.pamatnik-Terezín.cz/en/history-collection-research/historical-overview/the-police-prison-in-the-small-fortress?lang=en

Terezín Memorial. “The Concentration Camp for Jews: The Terezín Ghetto.” Retrieved 13 March 2013 from http://www.pamatnik-Terezín.cz/en/history-collection-research/historical-overview/the-concentration-camp-for-jews-the-Terezín-ghetto?lang=en

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Theresienstadt." Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13 March 2013 from hhttp://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005424.

From the guide to the Theresienstadt Clippings Collection, 1959-2004, (Leo Baeck Institute)

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), known in English as the Nazi Party, was an extreme right-wing party led by Adolf Hitler from 1919-1945.

After Germany’s defeat in World War I, economic hardship and political instability provided favorable conditions for the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, who promised to restore pride to the German nation.

Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. After fire was set to the Reichstag on February 28, 1933, a state of emergency was declared which gave the executive branch the power to bypass the parliament. Over the next few years, the Nazi government took control of major legal, cultural, and educational institutions in the process of Gleichschaltung or "coordination." During this time, the civil rights of Jews and other non-Aryans were increasingly limited as they were excluded from intellectual, professional, cultural, and everyday life.

In March of 1938, Germany took over Austria. In the fall of 1938, Hitler threatened war unless he was allowed to annex Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia) without intervention from other powers, and, in the Munich Agreement, the leaders of Britain, France, and Italy acquiesced.

The night of November 9, 1938, known as Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, saw the widespread destruction of synagogues as well as Jewish homes and businesses.

World War II officially started when Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Jewish ghettos were created in Poland, and Jews from all parts of the Reich were sent to them. Einsatzgruppen were sent out to commit mass murders of Jews and other groups considered undesirable by the Nazi regime, including persons with disabilities, the Roma people, homosexuals, and communists.

The Wannsee Conference was held in January of 1942 to discuss the Final Solution to the “Jewish question” and agree upon plans for the deportation and extermination of the Jews of Europe. Death camps went into operation shortly thereafter and approximately six million Jews were killed.

Hitler’s regime collapsed in the spring of 1945. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 during the Battle of Berlin, and German forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies in early May 1945.

References

Hildebrand, Klaus. Das Dritte Reich. 2nd Edition. Munich, Vienna: R. Oldenbourg, 1980.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Introduction to the Holocaust." Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved 4 March 2013 from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Third Reich: An Overview." Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved 4 March 2013 from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005141.

From the guide to the National Socialism Collection, 1920-1992, bulk 1933-1945, (Leo Baeck Institute)

The Gurs internment and concentration camp was located outside of the village of Gurs in southern France about 50 miles from the Spanish border. Established in April of 1939, Gurs first held Spanish republicans fleeing Franco after the Spanish Civil War. These political prisoners were joined in 1940 by Jews from Germany and Austria as well as French political opponents of the Nazis. Aid organizations helped to release about 2,000 Jews between 1940 and 1942. Many of those who remained either died in Gurs as a result of harsh living conditions or were deported via transport camps to the extermination camps Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibor. The Gurs camp was closed in November 1943 and then reopened in 1944 first to hold political prisoners of the Vichy government and then prisoners of war captured by the Allies. It was shut down completely by 1946.

During its operation from 1939-1940, the internment camp at St. Cyprien held refugees of the Spanish Civil War and Jews from the German Reich. In 1940, many detainees were transferred to Gurs.

References

Rutkowski, Adam. “Gurs.” Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Israel Gutman, ed. New York: MacMillan, 1990.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Gurs.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14 March 2013 from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005298.

From the guide to the Gurs (Concentration camp) Collection, 1940-1989, (Leo Baeck Institute)

Jakob Wassermann was born 1873 in Fuerth, Germany. He worked as a journalist in Germany and in Switzerland, before publishing his first novel ‘Melusine’ in 1896. Shortly after he moved to Austria where he lived alternatively in Vienna and in the spa-town Altaussee, where he died in 1934.

Writer (1874-1934).

From the guide to the Jakob Wassermann Autographs Collection, 1998-1933, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)

While the term “concentration camp” is sometimes used refer to any type of camp created and run by the Nazi party in Germany between 1933 and 1945, the term refers specifically to camps where prisoners were held in harsh living conditions without regard to juridical process and usually forced to work. In addition to concentration camps in the limited sense, the Nazis also established transit camps and extermination camps. Some concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, also functioned as extermination camps.

After the Nazi party came to power in Germany in 1933, they began detaining political prisoners and dissidents as a means of ensuring and consolidating their power. In 1934, Adolf Hitler named Heinrich Himmler the head of the SS and transferred control of these prisoners to him, circumventing any due process of law for those arrested by the SS and brought to the camps.

As Germany prepared for war in the late 1930s, the number of concentration camps rose as well as the number of prisoners. Directly following Kristallnacht, thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps, and the number of Jewish prisoners increased dramatically thereafter. In addition to Jews and political opponents such as communists, other concentration camp prisoners included Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, religious conscientious objectors, criminals, and so-called “asocials” such as beggars or any other person deemed undesirable by the Nazi party. During this time, prisoners were exploited for labor that supported Nazi Germany’s war efforts such as construction and mining. In the later years of World War II, prisoners were also forced to build underground armament facilities, such as those at Dora-Mittelbau.

The extremely harsh living conditions at concentration camps led many prisoners to die of starvation or overwork. Many were also shot or hung. In 1941, the first camps dedicated to mass killing were established. The Wannsee Conference was held in 1942, a meeting at which Nazi officials agreed upon plans to systematically exterminate of the Jews of Europe. Prisoners were transported from concentration camps to these extermination camps in large numbers from 1942-1945.

The concentration camps run by the Nazis were liberated by the Allied or Soviet forces either before or shortly after the Nazis officially surrendered in early May 1945.

References

Pingel, Falk. “Concentration camps.” Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Israel Gutman, ed. New York: MacMillan, 1990.

From the guide to the Concentration Camps Clippings Collection, 1950-1997, (Leo Baeck Institute)

Theresienstadt holds a unique position among the concentration camps and ghettos created by the German Nazi regime from 1933-1945. From the time the Nazis turned the then Czechoslovak city of Terezín (German: Theresienstadt) into a camp-ghetto in November 1941 to the liberation of prisoners in May 1945, different sections of the city and its surrounding areas functioned as a Gestapo prison, a Jewish ghetto, a forced labor camp, and a transit camp that eventually sent prisoners to death camps in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Gestapo prison was set up in the Small Fortress on the edge of the city and held mainly Czech and Slovak political prisoners. Once the local residents of the city of Theresienstadt were moved out, the city itself was used as a ghetto and labor camp for Jews from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark, and Hungary.

Theresienstadt also played a role as propaganda for the Nazi regime. The widespread deportation of Jews from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia began in 1941 under the pretense that these individuals were being sent to work in the East. Since it could hardly be believed that the old or frail being deported were being sent to work, the Nazis set up Theresienstadt as a supposed “spa town” for retirees. Theresienstadt was also the destination of Jews of sufficient renown that their deportation would cause some to inquire after them. While lectures, concerts, and other events were held in Theresienstadt and a library of some 60,000 volumes was maintained, prisoners suffered inhumane living conditions and often lived in constant fear.

Starting in the fall of 1942, many transports from Theresienstadt took prisoners directly to the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Theresienstadt was liberated by Soviet troops in early May 1945.

References

Niewyk, Donald L. and Francis Nicosia. The Columbia Reference Guide to the Holocaust. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.

Terezín Memorial. “The Police Prison in the Small Fortress.” Retrieved 13 March 2013 from http://www.pamatnik-Terezín.cz/en/history-collection-research/historical-overview/the-police-prison-in-the-small-fortress?lang=en

Terezín Memorial. “The Concentration Camp for Jews: The Terezín Ghetto.” Retrieved 13 March 2013 from http://www.pamatnik-Terezín.cz/en/history-collection-research/historical-overview/the-concentration-camp-for-jews-the-Terezín-ghetto?lang=en

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Theresienstadt." Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13 March 2013 from hhttp://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005424.

From the guide to the Theresienstadt Collection, 1941-1981, (Leo Baeck Institute)

Arthur Schnitzler (May 15, 1862 - October 21, 1931), the son of a Jewish physician, took a medical degree and practiced medicine for much of his life, interesting himself particularly in psychiatry. He made his name as a playwright and novelist, known for his psychological dramas that dissect turn-of-the-century Viennese bourgeois life.

His first success was Anatol (1893), a series of seven one-act plays depicting the casual amours of a wealthy young Viennese man. In his play Liebelei (1896) and in his most successful novel, Leutnant Gustl (1901) he depicted the hollowness of the Austrian military code of honor. In the play Professor Bernhardi (1912) and the novel Der Weg ins Freie (1908) he analyzed the position of the Jews in Austria. His works include plays, novels, collections of stories, and several medical tracts.

Source: Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 28 Dec. 2012.

From the guide to the Arthur Schnitzler Autographs Collection, 1880-1931, 1962, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)

The Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden was founded in September 1933. It was a federation of Jewish organizations and regional and local Jewish communities, representing a wide range of political and religious viewpoints, that aimed to provide a unified voice for German Jewry in dealing with the Nazi authorities. It also provided social services and aided the emigration of Jews from Germany.

Upon its inception, Rabbi Leo Baeck was elected president, with Otto Hirsch serving as chairman. Among the chief organizers were Dr. Georg Hirschland, president of the Jewish Community of Essen and Dr. Hugo Hahn, its rabbi. In 1935, the Nazi government renamed it the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland . It was dissolved in 1938 and was replaced in 1939 by the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, a compulsory organization of all Jews living in Nazi Germany, as defined by the Nuremberg laws.

For further information, see Sauer, Paul, "Otto Hirsch (1885–1941): Director of the Reichsvertretung," Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook (1987) 32(1): 341-368, Gruenewald, Max, "The Beginning of the ‘Reichsvertretung," Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook (1956) 1(1): 57-67, and Adler-Rudel, Shalom, Jüdische Selbsthilfe unter dem Naziregime 1933-1939 (1974).

From the guide to the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden Collection, 1933-1963, bulk 1933-1934, (Leo Baeck Institute)

The Independent Order of B’nai B’rith (German: Unabhängiger Orden Bne Briss (UOBB)) is a Jewish fraternal benevolent society founded in New York in 1843. The first European lodge district was established in Berlin, Germany in 1882 as the Grossloge für Deutschland . Districts were also established in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Rumania, and Great Britain. By 1932, the German district had 103 lodges and nearly 15,000 members. In April 1937, the Nazi party banned B'nai B'rith and confiscated the assets of the organization and the lodges.

For a brief history of B'nai B'rith in Germany, with an emphasis on 1933-1937, see Karin Voelker, The B'nai B'rith Order (U.O.B.B.) in the Third Reich (1933–1937), Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook (1987) 32(1):269-295.

From the guide to the Grossloge fuer Deutschland (B'nai B'rith Germany) Collection, undated, 1907-1939, bulk 1921-1937, (Leo Baeck Institute)

While the term “concentration camp” is sometimes used refer to any type of camp created and run by the Nazi party in Germany between 1933 and 1945, the term refers specifically to camps where prisoners were held in harsh living conditions without regard to juridical process and usually forced to work. In addition to concentration camps in the limited sense, the Nazis also established transit camps and extermination camps. Some concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, also functioned as extermination camps.

After the Nazi party came to power in Germany in 1933, they began detaining political prisoners and dissidents as a means of ensuring and consolidating their power. In 1934, Adolf Hitler named Heinrich Himmler the head of the SS and transferred control of these prisoners to him, circumventing any due process of law for those arrested by the SS and brought to the camps.

As Germany prepared for war in the late 1930s, the number of concentration camps rose as well as the number of prisoners. Directly following Kristallnacht, thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps, and the number of Jewish prisoners increased dramatically thereafter. In addition to Jews and political opponents such as communists, other concentration camp prisoners included Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, religious conscientious objectors, criminals, and so-called “asocials” such as beggars or any other person deemed undesirable by the Nazi party. During this time, prisoners were exploited for labor that supported Nazi Germany’s war efforts such as construction and mining. In the later years of World War II, prisoners were also forced to build underground armament facilities, such as those at Dora-Mittelbau.

The extremely harsh living conditions at concentration camps led many prisoners to die of starvation or overwork. Many were also shot or hung. In 1941, the first camps dedicated to mass killing were established. The Wannsee Conference was held in 1942, a meeting at which Nazi officials agreed upon plans to systematically exterminate of the Jews of Europe. Prisoners were transported from concentration camps to these extermination camps in large numbers from 1942-1945.

The concentration camps run by the Nazis were liberated by the Allied or Soviet forces either before or shortly after the Nazis officially surrendered in early May 1945.

References

Pingel, Falk. “Concentration camps.” Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Israel Gutman, ed. New York: MacMillan, 1990.

From the guide to the Concentration Camps Collection, 1933-2004, (Leo Baeck Institute)

The Kaulla family was a successful and influential Jewish banking family that began with the daughter of Isaac Raphael, the court supplier of Prince Joseph Friedrich Wilhelm of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. Kaulla (also spelled Chaile or Caile or Kaule and the Hebrew name for Karoline) Raphael was the daughter and oldest child of Isaac Raphael. While his daughter was still young, Isaac moved the family to the town of Hechingen, today in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Kaulla, known as "Madame Kaulla," took over her father's business and became a prominent businesswoman who eventually supplied Emperor Franz I of Austria. Her success led to her brothers and children adopting her name as the family surname. The family firm's fortunes helped to finance the Württembergische Hofbank, which in time merged into the Württembergische Vereinsbank, eventually absorbed into today's Deutsche Bank.

Several members of the family earned noble titles and held positions at court, such as court counselors and court bankers. In 1825 Nathan Wolf Kaulla and Salomon Jacob Kaulla founded the first synagogue in Stuttgart. One family descendant, Eduard Pfeiffer, was in the legislature of Stuttgart and worked to modernize housing for the working class. Another descendant was Sigmund Warburg, who went to England and founded the S.G. Warburg Bank in London. Some family members fled Nazi Germany to England; descendants of Otto Kaulla came to the United States.

From the guide to the Kaulla Family Collection, 1836-1996, bulk 1900-1964, (Leo Baeck Institute)