Copyright Holder: Ms. Lore Schneider
Oscar Koppel was born in Letmathe, Germany in December 1886. After obtaining his law degree from Heidelberg University in 1912 and serving in the German military in 1914, Oscar embarked on a career as a lawyer and notary. For nearly ten years, from 1923-1934 he served as a legal advisor to coal mining unions, including the Association of Metal and Raw Product Wholesale Merchants. Oscar was living in Bochum with his wife, Elsa (1891-1966) and daughter, Lore (1924-), at the time of the Nazi rise to power. In April 1933, as a result of the Nuremburg laws, Oscar was disbarred and banned from practicing law because of his Jewish faith. In an effort to escape further persecution, Oscar moved his family to the United States. In June of 1934 the family left Germany for Amsterdam, Netherlands, and subsequently sailed from South Hampton, England to New York City on the RMS Carinthia. Once in the United States, Oscar and his wife and daughter settled in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Unable to practice as a lawyer, Oscar took a job as a bookkeeper for a local liquor store and taught German lessons on the side, at one point teaching President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s son. After declaring his intent to seek citizenship in 1937, Oscar obtained a job as an economist for the United States government, focusing on industrial production and coal mining. In1939, the entire family was granted citizenship.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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The Oscar Koppel papers are arranged as a single series.
The Oscar Koppel papers contain a variety of documents pertaining to Oscar’s professional life and assets in Germany. Material documenting Oscar’s career as a lawyer range from his diploma from Heidelberg University to correspondence regarding his disbarment, to testimonies applauding his representation of labor unions. Also comprised in his collection are documents pertaining to the family’s property and assets in Germany. This includes asset registration forms and a series of telegrams regarding the seizure of his property in 1943 and his attempts for reclamation immediately following the end of World War II. Additionally, the Oscar Koppel papers include facsimile correspondence to the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel for the Persecution of Axis Criminality requesting war crimes be brought against a number of journalists who participated in promulgating Nazi propaganda and a request for war crimes to be brought against the mayor of Letmathe for mistreatment of his brother, Julius during Kristallnacht.
Oscar Koppel papers