United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Joseph Strip (1923-2014) was born Joseph Stripounsky in Antwerp to Menachem (Nathan, b. 1893 in Podbrodzie, now Pabradė, Lithuania) and Rosa Ester Mac (b. 1894). His stepmother was Regina Stripounsky (b. Regina Gunzig in 1898 in Krakow) and his younger brother was named Asriel (Ace, b. 1936). His family fled to France when Germany invaded Belgium in 1940. They lived in Nîmes and Gratentour and then immigrated to the United States with the help of Menachem’s former employer in 1941. The family settled in Newark, and Joseph graduated from Newark College of Engineering and changed his name to Joseph Strip. He joined the U.S. Army, was sent to Germany in 1944, served as an interpreter with the War Crimes Investigation Team, and translated documents for the Nuremberg Trials. He married Eliane Poser in 1948, had three children, and worked as an engineer for IT&T, the Signal Corps of Engineers, and RCA.
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The Stripounsky family papers are arranged as five series: I: Biographical materials, 1912-1959 II: Correspondence, 1940-2013 (bulk 1940-1943) III: Photographs, approximately 1920-1953 IV: Printed materials, approximately 1930-1950, V: Writings, 1939-2014
The Stripounsky family papers consist of identification, education, immigration, and military papers, correspondence, photographs, printed materials, and writings documenting the flight of Menachem (Nathan) and Regina Stripounsky and their sons Joseph and Asriel from Nazi-occupied Belgium to France in 1940 and from France to the United States in 1941 and Joseph Strip’s military service in 1945 and 1946. Biographical materials consist of identification papers, student records, ration cards, military records, employment records, citizenship records, and immigration records documenting the Stripounsky family, Menachem Stripounsky’s years in England and immigration to Belgium, the birth of his son Joseph, the family’s refuge in France, and their immigration to the United States. This series also contains correspondence documenting Joseph’s work for military intelligence and war crimes trials after the war and his efforts to redress his Belgian court martial. Correspondence files document Menachem Stripounsky’s efforts in 1940 and 1941 to find employment in France and to enable his family to immigrate to the United States with the help of his previous employer, and they include Menachem’s hand-copied correspondence entries into notebooks that appear to have also been used by Joseph for his studies. This series also documents the Stripounskys’ unsuccessful efforts to help the Kaminsky family immigrate to the United States, poems by Morris Polaskoff, and Joseph Strip’s return visit to the French city of Grantentour where his family found refuge after leaving Belgium before immigrating to the United States. Photographic materials include two photo albums and loose photographs documenting Joseph Stripounsky’s military service in Europe from 1944-1946 as well as Menachem Stripounsky, his family, and his coworkers. Printed materials include the July 21, 1947 edition of the daily newspaper of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, a map of Belgium, a program for a Mendele Folk Shul event, and a few clippings. Writings include Joseph’s 1939 geometry notebook, his 1940 algebra notebook which he also used as a diary, and his 1941 diary. Joseph’s diaries describe the 1940 invasion of Belgium, his family’s flight to France, the invasion of France, his life as a refugee in Gratentour (near Toulouse) and Nimes, his family’s immigration to the United States via Spain and Portugal, and their new life in the United States. Throughout the diaries he notes his activities, impressions, living conditions, rations, and news about the progress of the war. His writings also include his memoirs written between 1978 and 2014 describing his family escape to France and the United States in 1940 and 1941. His memoirs comment and expand on his diary entries and his father’s correspondence from the time and describe in detail their flight from Belgium, his father’s efforts to secure the family’s immigration to America, his education in the United States, and his work as translator and interpreter for the US Army. This series also includes drafts of a short composition Regina wrote for an English class about an American couple escaping war-torn France as well as the memoirs of Marcel Braitstein, a nephew of Regina Stripounsky’s relative Rachel Gunzig, about his survival as a hidden child in Belgium.
Stripounsky family papers