The Bienstock family papers document the experiences of Dreisel and Wolf Bienstock and their children Joseph and Martha Bienstock as they fled Nazi Germany in 1938. The papers include immigration and identification documents; copies of letters Martha Bienstock sent from Lisbon, Portugal to family members and her friend Gisa; restitution papers with testimonial statements regarding their men’s clothing business; and a photocopy of a newspaper with an article about the Bienstock’s business not being open on Saturdays. There is also a Polish poverty certificate of Abraham Singer, whose relation to the family is unknown.
The Bienstock family papers are arranged alphabetically as one series.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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Bienstock family papers
Wolf Bienstock (1897-1995) married Dreisel Stern (later Dora Bienstock; 1896-1993) in 1919. Wolf and Dreisel were both Polish, but moved to Dortmund, Germany where they owned a men’s clothing business. They had two children: Joseph (b. 1919) and Martha (later Martha Padawer; 1924-2012). In 1938, they were forced to sell their business and they made plans to leave Germany. They fled Germany in September 1938 by paying someone to smuggle them to Belgium. They were in Antwerp, Belgium until May 1940, and then went to France where they were in a detention camp for a short while. After they were released, they went to Madrid, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal. In Lisbon, they were able to secure visas and immigrated to the United States in 1941. In 1942, they settled in Howell, New Jersey and purchased a chicken farm.