Bloch family papers

Bloch family papers 

Bloch family papers 

boxes 6 

The papers of the Bloch family papers include biographical information as well as records documenting claims made by Norbert and Gretel Bloch and Käthe Bremer to receive restitution for losses and damages suffered under the Third Reich. Biographical materials include family trees; birth, marriage, and death certificates; passports and identity cards; travel papers; naturalization papers; school records; and vaccination records for Norbert and Gretel Bloch and Käthe Bremer as well as for Max and Hildegard Chodowski and Amalie and Gertrude Sichel. Claims include the burning and looting of the family's department store, Bloch & Bremer, during Kristallnacht and its subsequent forced liquidation at sub-market prices; monies paid under the punitive Jewish Property Tax (Judenvermögensabgabe) and the Capital Flight Tax (Reichsfluchtsteuer), and through the selective application of economic organs such as the Foreign Exchange (Devisenstelle) and the German Gold Discount Bank; confiscation and theft of property by the Gestapo, including a packed shipping container (“lift”) Bloch had sent to Italy; the loss of bank account holdings, the contents of a safety deposit box, an automobile, and securities; unpaid insurance policies and mortgages; and physical and mental suffering from Gestapo questioning, a nervous breakdown following Kristallnacht, and the aggravation of Bloch’s diabetes. The records also document the family’s efforts to track the fates of Ida Bloch, Lina Bloch, and Frieda Bremer. Records dating from the Third Reich include business records, banking and investment records, insurance records, tax records, receipts, and correspondence relating to the liquidation of the Bloch & Bremer department store. Documents from later decades include correspondence with courts, lawyers, and government bodies; legal decisions; forms; and occasional newspaper clippings. 

The collection is arranged as two series: Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1895-1899, 1908-1926, 1939, 1944-1948, 1953, 1961-1965, 1970, 1977, 1990, 1996 Series 2: Claims, 1919-1977