us-005578-irn509498-irn515778
is or was included in: us-005578-irn509498
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Dark brown, textured leather briefcase with accordion side folds, worn and has holes from use. On the top is a rectangular leather handle; the ends are looped through a metal D ring inserted through a leather patch riveted to the top and secured by a full length metal plate on the interior. Near each flap edge is a silver colored metal plate to insert into 1 of 3 slots on the metal key lock on the body. The leather interior is light brown, soft, smooth leather and has a canvas divider.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
has record set type: Item
biographical history: Karl Weiler was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on July 31, 1904, to Friedrich (Fritz) and Ella Ederheimer Weiler. Fritz was born on April 11, 1875, in Brakel, to Mathilde Kalmann (1828-1904) and Moses Weiler. Moses was born in 1832 in Brakel to Levi and Jettchen Lilienthal Weiler. Fritz had two sisters, Clementine, born 1869, and Louise, born 1867, who married Max Fulda, and one older brother, Hermann, born 1875. Moses’ father Levi had established an agricultural brokerage and wholesale business, L. Weiler, in Brakel around 1825. Moses now ran the firm and the family was wealthy and respected in the community. The Weiler’s were an assimilated but observant Jewish family. The town had a small synagogue for the twenty Jewish families. Fritz married Ella Ederheimer on May 11, 1902. Ella was born on December 14, 1879, in Frankfurt am Main, to Pauline and Samuel Ederheimer. Ella’s father was a prosperous banker in Frankfurt, where Ella and Fritz settled. Karl’s sister Mathilde (Till) was born on December 29, 1908. Fritz was a partner in a leather goods manufacturing business, but in spring 1914, he agreed to his father’s request to join the family firm. Moses wished to retire and Fritz moved his family to Brakel to run the business with his brother Hermann. Moses and both of Ella’s parents died in 1915. Fritz, age 40, was drafted in 1916 to fight in World War I (1914-1918). He served on the Russian front and was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery. Karl attended a Latin school in Brakel and then a boarding school in nearby Hoexter. After graduating high school in 1922, Karl apprenticed at an agricultural brokerage in Hamburg and Breslau (Wroclaw, Poland) and then studied law at the Universities of Breslau and Freiburg. In 1932, Karl moved to Berlin to study for the assessor exam which would permit him to practice law. On January 30, 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Karl passed the exam on February 25 and was appointed an assistant judge. On February 27, he …
type: RecordSet
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
record resource extent: overall: Height: 14.500 inches (36.83 cm) | Width: 16.500 inches (41.91 cm) | Depth: 2.250 inches (5.715 cm)
identifier: irn515778
title: Dark brown leather briefcase used by a German Jewish refugee
date: 1937 December
archival history: The briefcase was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004 by Judy Gartner and Susan Oberfeld, the daughters of Carl and Mina Kaufmann Weiler.
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn509498-irn515778/alternateIDs/1
has or had holder: us-005578
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn509498-irn515778/acquisitions/1
scope and content: Dark brown leather briefcase brought by Karl Weiler from Nazi Germany to the United States in December 1937. Karl lost his position as an assistant judge in March 1933 when the new Nazi government purged the civil service of Jews and passed a law to that effect April 7 with the first Aryan only qualification clause. Karl rejoined the family agricultural firm in Brakel. Anti-Jewish pressures increased and, in May 1936, the firm’s board of directors was forced to sell the business at a loss to a Nazi approved buyer. In December 1937, Karl left for the US. After the war ended in May 1945, he learned that his parents, Fritz and Ella, had been deported to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in 1942, then in 1944 to Auschwitz killing center where they were murdered. His sister, Mathilde Fodor, had been deported from Budapest, Hungary, in November 1944 to Lichtenworth concentration camp where she died of starvation. Her husband, Joszi, and son, Karoly, survived.