United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Margaret Klein Goetz (1909-2010) was born in Heidelberg to Heinrich Klein (1876-approximately 1944), a hops and tobacco merchant, and Melanie Sondheimer Klein (1883-approximately 1942). She studied chemistry in Berlin and immigrated to America in 1936, where she stayed with relatives in Buffalo before finding work near Detroit. Her parents and her sister Hilde (1914-approximately 1942) were deported from Heidelberg to the concentration camp at Gurs in October 1940. Heinrich Klein was then transferred to Les Milles, Rivesaltes, Nexon, Masseube, back to Gurs, Noé, and le Vernet. Melanie and Hilde Klein are believed to have been transported to Auschwitz in September 1942 and Heinrich Klein in June 1944. Goetz’s other sister, Lotte Malz (1915- ), had emigrated to Palestine in 1935. Goetz eventually moved to Los Angeles and married Richard Goetz (1884-1974), whom she had met in Detroit.
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The Margaret Klein Goetz family correspondence is arranged as a single series: I. Margaret Klein Goetz family correspondence, 1940-1944
The Margaret Klein Goetz family correspondence consists primarily of letters, telegrams, and postcards to Margaret Klein from her parents and sister in Heidelberg and then Gurs, Les Milles, Nexon, and Masseube. The correspondence documents the family’s efforts to immigrate to the United States, money and parcels received by the family members in the camps through Quaker and Swiss relief agencies and an uncle in Switzerland, daily camp life, and news of family members and friends. Additional letters and postcards are addressed from Heinrich Klein in Masseube, Gurs, Noé, and le Vernet to Dr. H. Zernik, who continued to provide aid.
Margaret Klein Goetz family correspondence