Walter and Erna Brunell papers
Walter Brunell (1891-1962) and his wife Erna lived in Cologne, Germany where they experienced anti-Semitic persecution following the Nazi rise to power following 1933. They had two children; Adele lived in England from 1939 to 1944, while Ernst immigrated to the United States in 1939. While living in Cologne, Walter corresponded with various relatives in the United States, as well as Jewish aid organizations in an attempt to work with the American consulate and obtain a visa to immigrate to the U.S. They traveled from Berlin to Lisbon in 1941 in an attempt to emigrate, but could not leave. They instead moved to Barcelona for a year until they could obtain the appropriate paperwork and immigrated to the United States in 1942.
The Walter and Erna Brunell papers are arranged as two series: •Series 1: Correspondence, 1938-1941 •Series 2: Immigration, 1941-1942
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The Walter and Erna Brunell papers contain primarily correspondence related to Walter and Brunell’s attempts to emigrate from Germany in the late 1930s. The correspondence is with various relatives and aid organizations related to their attempts to obtain visas from the United States. Other documents include passports, transit visas, and other various documents related to their immigration. The Walter and Erna Brunell papers contain primarily correspondence concerning the couple’s efforts in obtaining visas to immigrate to the United States. These include telegrams with their son, Ernst Brunell, living with a relative in Jackson Heights, New York. Other correspondence is with Jewish aid agencies, consulates of foreign governments, and transportation services. The immigration series contains items related to their travel from Germany, including passports while they lived in Spain, transit visas to Lisbon, and various transportation tickets and documents related to their travel to Lisbon and later the United States.
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