Fritz Rosenthal family papers

Fritz Rosenthal family papers 

Fritz Rosenthal family papers 

box 1 

The Fritz Rosenthal Family papers measure 0.5 linear foot and date from 1900-1995. The collection contains biographical materials, correspondence files, photographic materials, and professional records documenting major life events of Rosenthal family members, the immigration of Fritz, his wife Marty, and his father Karl Rosenthal to America, the lives of the Rosenthals in the United States, and Fritz Rosenthal’s career in chemistry. Records documenting Karl and Claire Rosenthal’s experiences in Würzburg during and after Kristallnacht are particularly noteworthy. Other family members highlighted in the collection include Babette, Gerson, and Max Rosenthal and Paul Grüninger, Marty Rosenthal’s godfather. Biographical materials document the birth, education, marriage, immigration, and death of Rosenthal family members. Records include identity, immigration, and naturalization papers, an autobiography and a family history, death notices, family trees, a mourning album, school records, a wedding menu, translations of a will and of a trade certification, and clippings. Karl Rosenthal’s autobiography is a particularly rich document, describing his experience as a Jewish lawyer in Würzburg following the Nuremberg laws, his role as a consultant for German Jews dispossessed during the process of Aryanization, his arrests and his week at the Buchenwald concentration camp, and his experience returning to Germany after the war to help with Jewish restitution cases. Photocopied pages from Der Novemberpogrom von 1938 in Unterfranken: Vorgeschichte, Verlauf, Augenzeugenberichte include the letter Claire Rosenthal wrote her children just before her suicide. Correspondence files include letters between Fritz and Marty Rosenthal in the United States and Karl and Claire Rosenthal in Germany describing the family’s immigration efforts and the younger couple’s life in America, a 1939 letter from Hans Zellweger to Swiss Bundesrat Johannes Baumann asking for help securing Karl Rosenthal’s emigration, and Fritz and Marty Rosenthal’s annual reports describing the couple’s family life in the United States and their travels abroad. Photographic materials include images of Fritz Rosenthal in his chemistry laboratory, family members, family members’ gravestones in Germany, and the Rosenthal family home in Würzburg. Records documenting Fritz Rosenthal’s professional career as a research and industrial chemist specializing in plastics, specialty papers, and specialty coatings at various chemical companies in Germany, England, and the United States include articles written by Rosenthal, clippings about him, correspondence about his work, and his patents, patent applications, and patent assignments. 

The Fritz Rosenthal Family papers are arranged as four series: Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1900-1995; Series 2: Correspondence Files, 1924-1994; Series 3: Photographic Materials, 1911-1990s; Series 4: Professional Career, 1941-1993