Wallach, Sidney, 1905-1979

Kate Wallach was born in Krefeld (near Duesseldorf), Germany, in 1905, into a well-to-do Jewish family. Her father, Ludwig Wallach was a partner in a wholesale silk firm, and her mother Bertha Wallach (born Schoenberg) was a housewife. The family moved to Berlin where Kate completed her secondary school in 1923. She had one brother, Ernst Wallach, born in 1909, a retailer, who moved to the Netherlands in 1933.

Kate emigrated to the United States of America in November 1935, as she was unable to practice law at that time in Germany. Her brother Ernst followed her in 1938, but their parents still remained in Berlin-Dahlem. Though the situation continued to worsen for Jews in Germany, the parents held back from leaving the country, partly because Kate's grandmother was still alive and too old to relocate. In 1941 Kate's father died of heart failure, and her mother and grandmother were deported to Theresienstadt. Her grandmother died in Theresienstadt, while Kate's mother was deported to Auschwitz, where she died in 1944.

Kate Wallach studied law at a number of German universities and was awarded the Dr. Jur. at the University of Cologne in 1931. She immigrated to the United States in 1935. After obtaining an LLB degree at the University of Wisconsin she decided to enter the field of law librarianship, achieving a BALS.

She was very active in the American Law Library Association and was elected President of that organization in 1961. Besides chairing many committees she published numerous articles in legal journals as well as extensive bibliographies. She spent her retirement years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She died in 1979.

From the guide to the Kate Wallach Collection, 1828-1997, (Leo Baeck Institute)