United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Peter Aldin was born Peter Sigo Abendstern on 29 October 1932 in Schwerin, Germany to Otto and Elly Abendstern. His father Otto Abendstern (1904-1942) was born on 5 November 1904 in Stuttgart, Germany to Samuel (d. 1923) and Regina (née Pappenheimer, b. 1881) Abendstern. He had one brother, Martin. Otto worked for Adler and Oppenheimer, a leading leather manufacturer, as did his father. His mother Elly Abendstern (later Elly Abendstern Fleischmann, 1902-1999) was born Elly Meyerhoff on 22 March 1902 in Körbecke, Germany to Max and Henriette (Henny) Meyerhoff. She had one brother, Ernst. Elly’s father owned a farm where he raised cattle and worked as a butcher. Otto and Elly met around New Year’s Eve, 1929. They married in 1931, and their son Peter was born in 1932 in Schwerin. In April 1933 the family left Schwerin briefly for Berlin before moving to Hamburg where Otto could continue working for Adler and Oppenheimer. In March 1938 they emigrated from Germany to Wiltz, Luxembourg where Otto’s employer also had a factory. Elly’s parents Henriette and Max Meyerhoff joined them there. Otto’s brother Martin immigrated to England with his wife Hanna and their sons Robert and George. Martin also worked for Adler and Oppenheimer. Otto was in Brussels, Belgium on a business trip when Germany invaded in May 1940. He was arrested and sent to St. Cyprien and Gurs. In May 1941 he was transferred to Les Milles. After Elly and Peter learned about his arrest and internment in France, they moved to Graulhet, Tarn in southern France. Elly hoped that Otto’s employer, who had an office in Graulhet, would help support her. She was able to visit Otto at Les Milles. Otto was interned in seven concentration camps including Les Milles, St. Cyprien, Gurs, and Drancy. He was deported to Auschwitz in August 1942 where he perished. While in the camps, he wrote many letters to his brother Martin in England. In August 1942, Elly sent Peter to a children’s home in Font-Romeu in the Pyrénées where he was hidden. She received help in hiding Peter from Andre Marty, a member of the Resistance. Andre and his wife then agreed to hide Elly from August 1942-August 1944. Elly obtained false identity documents, and lived under the name Eléonore Albert (née Miller). While hidden at Font-Romeu, the caretaker Suzanne Canard, known as Tante Suzanne, helped Peter keep in contact with his mother. He wrote letters addressed to her under the name Mitzi. After liberation, Elly remained in Graulhet while Peter boarded at the Petit Lycée de Toulouse. Elly married German artist Adolf Richard Fleischmann (nicknamed Ado, 1892-1968). Adolf was not Jewish but was interned in two camps: Les Milles camp and a smaller camp in Château Nicolas, Nîmes. In 1947 Peter, his mother, and Adolf moved to Paris. Elly and Adolf married in 1948. In February 1952 all three immigrated to the United States. Adolf had a successful career as an artist, and after his death in 1968 Elly worked to promote his work, eventually moving to Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. Peter earned his doctorate in psychology from Clark University and practiced psychiatry in New York City. Otto’s brother Martin and his family survived the Holocaust in England. His mother Regina was deported from Stuttgart to the Riga ghetto in 1941 where she was killed. Elly’s parents, who stayed in Luxembourg, were interned at the monastery at Fünfbrunnen, and then deported to Theresienstadt. Max Meyerhoff died there of starvation. In a deal with the Germans, Henriette Meyerhoff was sent to Switzerland as a resettlement volunteer and spent the remaining war years there. After the war, she immigrated to Kansas City, Missouri, where she joined her son, Ernst and his wife Mary Ann. Adolf Richard Fleischmann (1892-1968) was born on 19 March 1892 in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany to Wilhelm Adolf (b. 1856) and Pauline (née Grupp, b. 1861) Fleischmann. He had two sisters, Hedwig and Margarete, and his family belonged to the Evangelical Church Community of Esslingen. After high school he studied art in Stuttgart at the Royal School for Applied Arts (Königliche Kunstgewebeschule) and Art Academy (Kunstakademie), and developed a lifelong career as an abstract painter. He served with the German Army during World War I. In the 1920s and 1930s, his art appeared in exhibitions in Stuttgart, Berlin, and Paris among other locations. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, his work was branded as degenerate art and he left Germany. Adolf primarily lived in Mallorca, Paris, and Italy. During the war, he was interned at Les Milles, but managed to escape in 1940. Using false papers, he lived in Limoges, France with a member of the Resistance. After the war he met Elly Abendstern, and moved to Paris with her and her son Peter in 1947. They married in 1948, and in February 1952 all three immigrated to the United States. He continued to work as an artist in the United States, but lived the last few years of his life in Stuttgart. He had a major exhibition at the Württemberg Art Association in Stuttgart in 1966. After his death in 1968, his wife Elly remained in Stuttgart to promote his art.
Copyright Holder: Dr. Peter Aldin
boxes book enclosure oversize box 3 1 1
The collection is arranged as four series. Series 1. Biographical material, 1904-2016 Series 2. Correspondence, 1938-1979 Series 3. Writings, 1944-2016 Series 4. Photographs, circa 1880-circa 1997 Folders are arranged alphabetically and documents are arranged chronologically.
The collection primarily consists of correspondence, photographs, and documents relating to the family of Elly (née Meyerhoff) and Otto Abendstern, their son Peter Abendstern (later Peter Aldin), and Elly's second husband Adolf Richard Fleischmann. It documents Otto's internment in several camps in southern France, Elly and Peter's survival in France during the war in Graulhet and Font-Romeu, and Adolf's internment at Les Milles Camp and Saint Nicolas in southern France. Included are birth and marriage certificates, immigration and travel documents, family correspondence, pre-war, wartime, and post-war photographs, and Peter Aldin's memoir. Biographical material includes birth and marriage certificates, passports, immigration and travel documents, refugee paperwork, education papers, and CVs. Other material includes false identification cards of Elly used in Graulhet to live under the name Eléonore Albert (née Miller), an Abendstern family album (Stammbuch), wartime documents related to Peter living as a hidden child in Font-Romeu, copies of wartime documents related to Adolf, and papers related to Adolf’s art career. Correspondence primarily consists of wartime and post-war family letters. Wartime correspondence includes letters exchanged between Otto and his family while he was imprisoned in several camps, Elly and her son Peter while they were separated, and Elly with Suzanne Canard, who helped her son Peter hide in Font-Romeu. Postwar correspondence includes letters to Elly from Marty André, who provided her with shelter in Graulhet. Writings include notes written by Elly, and poems and a personal narrative authored by Peter. Pre-war photographs include depictions of the extended Abendstern and Meyerhoff families in Germany, and the Abendstern family in Wiltz, Luxembourg. Wartime photographs include depictions from two children’s homes in Font-Romeu where Peter survived as a hidden child, and Graulhet, France. Post-war photographs include depictions of André Marty and his family, who hid Elly for two years; the Petit Lycée de Toulouse; Paris; Peter’s family in the United States; and later visits to Auschwitz and Les Milles Camp. Also included are photographs depicting Elly’s second husband Adolf Fleischmann and his family.
Abendstern, Fleischmann, and Meyerhoff families papers