Out of the Archives: Serendipity by Kevin Schlottmann, Archival Services Manager, Center for Jewish History Today is International Cat Day. This morning, one of our archival fellows was processing a collection from the Leo Baeck Institute, when she came across a diary/sketchbook. Inside she discovered a small glassine envelope containing little white chips. Upon closer inspection, the chips turned out to be nail (well, claw) clippings from…
Out of the Archives: War Heroismby Kevin Schlottmann, Processing Archivist, Center for Jewish History Fred Lederman (born Manfred Ledermann, 1918-2003) was a baker by trade. After he fled Neckarsteinach, Germany for the United States, he was drafted into the Army and returned to Europe in 1944, where he earned a Bronze Star for convincing a German unit to surrender. The details of his heroic act…
Our of the Archives: Amerika, A Musical Tragicomedy in Three Acts and Eleven Scenes, After the Novel by Franz Kafka. Music by Ellis B. Kohs. The above sheet music is from the collections of the Leo Baeck Institute, one of our five partners here at the Center for Jewish History. The Ellis B. Kohs Papers, 1916-2000, can be found at the NYPL’s Performing Arts Library, specifically…
Out of the Archives: “The Ritchie Boys”by Kevin Schlottmann, Levy Processing Archivist, Center for Jewish History Werner Erwin Stark (1921 – 1995) was born in Munich, Germany, into a Jewish family of textile merchants. Together with his older brother Walter, he escaped to the United States via France in 1938. During World War Two, Stark enlisted in the US Army and was trained in…
Out of the ArchivesForesightSubmitted by Kevin Schlottmann, Levy Processing Archivist, Center for Jewish History From the Leo Baeck Institute’s Helen Ollendorff Curth Collection ([AR 25004]). Excerpt from the above June 1933 letter: “I doubt whether I can really give you authentic information on the German-Jewish doctor question. I happen to know, because I have a married sister in Cork, that the Irish Free State…