United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Norbert Bloch (1896-1977) was part owner of the Seesen, Germany department store Bloch & Bremer, established by Bloch's father, Josef Bloch, and uncle, Max Bremer, in 1898. Norbert Bloch's mother Ida Bloch, his aunt Frieda Bremer, and his cousin Käthe Bremer were also part owners. The store was burned down during Kristallnacht, and the business was subsequently liquidated by the German government. Bloch married Gretchen Bella (Gretel) Bloch in February 1939, and the couple immigrated to the United States in November 1939. Bloch's mother died at Theresienstadt in 1944, and his mother-in-law, Lina Bloch, and his aunt, Frieda Bremer, were also both deported and are assumed to have died in concentration camps.
boxes 6
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
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.
Bloch family papers