us-005578-irn502128
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Norbert Wollheim was born in Berlin, Germany, on April 26, 1913 to Jewish parents. His father was a veteran of World War I, 1914-1918. Norbert was active in the German Jewish Youth Alliance. Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933. In April, Norbert was expelled from law school at the University of Berlin because of the Nazis’ anti-Jewish laws. From 1935 through 1938, he worked as a clerk and scientific worker at an ore firm, Rawack and Grünfeld AG in Berlin-Charlottenburg. He married Rosa Mandelbrod on May 21, 1938. In September 1938 , he was dismissed from his job because he was Jewish. Following the November 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom, at the request of the German Jewish Community, Norbert helped arrange and escort twenty transports that took thousands of Jewish children to safety in Britain. The last Kindertransport left Berlin on August 29, 1939. Norbert continued to work for the leadership of the Jewish community, now renamed the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Union of Jews in Germany). In 1941, Norbert was drafted to perform forced labor. In February 1943, he and his family were arrested and taken to the Grosse Hamburger Strasse assembly center. On March 11, they were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. His pregnant wife, Rosa, and their 3-year old son, Uriel perished there. Norbert’s arm was tattooed with the number 107984. He was one of 25,000 Jews used as slave labor to build a synthetic-rubber plant for I.G. Farben in Auschwitz III-Monowitz (Buna). On January 18, 1945, the prisoners made a forced march from Auschwitz to Gleiwitz. From there, the members of the evacuation transport traveled to Czechoslovakia, Austria, back to Czechoslovakia, and finally to Berlin on January 31. They were taken to Heinkel, a satellite camp of Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg near Berlin. On April 20, the camp was evacuated and the prisoners marched under SS guard towards an undisclosed location. On the night of May 2, Wollheim fled to nearby Schwerin (Mec…
date: circa 1900-1998
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: heb
has or had some members with language: yid
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had subject: 316
has or had subject: 701
has or had subject: 3
has or had subject: 0
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn502128
record resource extent: boxes 54
record resource structure: The Norbert Wollheim papers are arranged as two series and seventeen subseries: Series 1: Life in Europe, approximately 1900-1996 (bulk 1945-1954) Subseries 1: Lübeck correspondence, 1945-1954 Subseries 2: I.G. Farben, 1945-1958, 1996 Subseries 3: Subject files, 1945-1954 Subseries 4: Publications, 1928-1985 Subseries 5: News clippings, approximately 1940s-1970s Subseries 6: Photographs, approximately 1900-1955 Subseries 7: Personal documents, approximately 1945-1989 Series 2: Life in America, 1945-1998 (bulk 1951-1998) Subseries 1: Personal correspondence, 1956-1993 Subseries 2: I. G. Farben and other restitution claims, 1951-1998 Subseries 3: World Federation of Bergen-Belsen Survivors, 1958-1991 Subseries 4: Auschwitz/Buna Memorial, 1958-1992 Subseries 5: World Federation of Holocaust Survivors, 1979-1995 Subseries 6: Subject files, 1939-1998 Subseries 7: Publications, 1959-1993 Subseries 8: News clippings, 1960-1997 Subseries 9: Photographs, 1960-1981 Subseries 10: Periodicals, 1945-1952
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The Norbert Wollheim papers consist of correspondence, photographs, and printed materials documenting Wollheim’s prewar family life in Europe, his efforts to receive restitution for his slave labor at I.G. Farben, his immigration to the United States, and his continued work with other Holocaust survivor organizations such as the World Federation of Bergen-Belsen Survivors, the Auschwitz/Buna Memorial, the World Federation of Holocaust Survivors, the United Jewish Appeal, and the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. Series 1, Life in Europe, primarily documents Norbert Wollheim’s life and activities in Europe before his immigration to the United States, including personal and professional correspondence from his years in Lübeck; legal records documenting his efforts to receive restitution for his slave labor at I.G. Farben; subject files about survivor conferences, postwar antisemitism, and emigration to Palestine; publications and clippings documenting Jewish survivor organizations; photographic materials documenting Wollheim’s family before the war and political and commemorative events after the war; and personal documents such as identification papers, calendars, and speeches. Subseries 1, Lübeck correspondence, includes Norbert Wollheim’s correspondence from his years in Lübeck after the war. The correspondence documents his postwar activities on behalf of survivors, and related travel, as well as his own marriage and the birth of his children. It includes professional, private, and personal correspondence with officials, aid organizations, friends, and relatives. Correspondents include Hermann Simon, Max Plaut, Karl Marx, Kurt Hecht, Rolf May, Hans and Gretl Royce, his sister and brother-in-law (Bellauer), and Julius Dreifuss. Subseries 2, Correspondence and related records regarding I.G. Farben, consists of legal records, correspondence, and clippings related to the slave labor Norbert Wollheim performed for I.G. Farben at Auschwitz during the war an…
title: Norbert Wollheim papers