us-005578-irn35818-irn36231
scope and content: Leather, bifold wallet taken with Ernestine Wiesenthal when she emigrated from Berlin, Germany, to London, England in 1939. The billfold originally belonged to her husband, Otto Wiesenthal, who passed away in 1930. Otto had been a physician, and a slip of paper, identifying his status as a Privy Medical Consultant, is still adhered to the interior. This was an honorary title bestowed on respected medical doctors with more than 20 years of experience. On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany. Following the passage of the Nuremberg laws in 1935, Ernestine’s son, Fritz, began looking for places where the family could immigrate as life became increasingly difficult for German Jews. Later that year, Fritz, a doctor, and his wife, Gertrude, sent their daughter, Illa, to boarding school in England. When their daughter, Nellie, was no longer allowed to attend public school, she moved into Ernestine’s home and attended a local Jewish school. Eventually, Jews were no longer able to practice medicine, and the family needed to emigrate. In 1938, Fritz left for the US in order to begin studying for the medical boards he needed to pass in order to practice medicine. He sent for Illa in August 1938. Nellie arrived in January 1939, and Gertrude arrived in March. Once in London, Ernestine spent her time knitting for the Red Cross. In the fall of 1942, she traveled to the US aboard a freighter in a Greek convoy.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has or had holder: us-005578
record resource extent: overall: Height: 4.250 inches (10.795 cm) | Width: 6.250 inches (15.875 cm) | Depth: 0.250 inches (0.635 cm)
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Rectangular, textured brown leather, bifold wallet with four, full-width interior pockets and machine stitched, brown thread finished edges. On one side of the interior, there is a narrow accordion pocket with a slot pocket on top, and on the other there are two slot pockets. The slot pockets are all lined with lightweight, woven, light brown cloth, and the upper slots pockets have a curved edge to make it easier to remove items from within. On the side with two slot pockets, a rectangular, tan paper label is adhered to the center and identifying personal information is printed in black ink and Fraktur font. The wallet is worn from use, with several loose threads and some fraying along the edges. There are losses to the upper left corner of the paper label and is beginning to pull away from the leather. interior, on paper label, printed in black ink : Dr. O. Wiesenthal / Geh. San. - Rat / Berlin W. 9 / Königin-Augusta-Str.12 [Geheim Sanitätsrat Privy Medical Consultant]
title: Brown leather billfold brought with a German Jewish prewar refugee
biographical history: Ernestine Unger (1873-1947, later Wiesenthal) was born in Berlin, Germany, into a Jewish family that had lived in the city for generations. She married Otto Wiesenthal (1859-1930) on February 15, 1891. Otto was a physician, as was his father. Their son, Fritz (1893-?), would become a doctor as well. They had one daughter, Helene (1892-?, later Meyer). Ernestine’s family was assimilated and lived a comfortable middle-class life. Her daughter married Edgar Meyer (1893-1963) and they had three children: Eva (b.1927), Peter (b. 1930, and Angelika (?-1938). Ernestine’s son married Gertrude Loewenberg (1898-1986) on May 15, 1920, and they had two daughters: Illa (b. 1921, later Ilse) and Nellie (b.1930, later Fink). Ernestine often cared for her granddaughters because Gertrude suffered from an obsessive compulsive neurosis. She feared that she might get her children sick, often thinking she was carrying diseases like polio, meningitis and scarlet fever. This condition controlled much of Gertrude’s life, so she was often away in sanatoriums, living apart from the family much of the time due to her condition. Ernestine’s husband, Otto, died in November 1930. In 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor, and by that spring, anti-Jewish legislation was in effect. In 1935, as the Nuremberg race laws were passed and life for Jews in Germany became extremely precarious, Ernestine and her son, Fritz, took a trip to Palestine in search of a safe place to live. Eventually, Fritz decided that it would be better to go to the United States because there were already a few of his wife’s relatives living there. Ernestine’s granddaughter, Illa, was sent to a boarding school in England. In 1936, Ernestine’s granddaughter, Nellie, came to live with her because the Jewish school she now had to attend was close to her home. Eventually, Jews were no longer able to practice medicine in Germany, and Fritz had to seriously consider emigration. He began making plans to go to the US, and find out if h…
identifier: irn36231
type: RecordSet
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1939-12-31
is or was included in: us-005578-irn35818
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn35818-irn36231/acquisitions/1
date: approximately 1930
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1939-01-01
archival history: The billfold was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2008 by Nellie Fink, the granddaughter of Otto and Ernestine Wiesenthal.
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn35818-irn36231/alternateIDs/1
has or had some members with language: deu
has record set type: Item