us-005578-irn597340-irn628052
history: The stamp was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Mark Roualet, great nephew of Leonie Roualet.
type: RecordSet
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
is or was included in: us-005578-irn597340
record resource extent: overall: Height: 1.750 inches (4.445 cm) | Width: 1.000 inches (2.54 cm)
has or had holder: us-005578
has record set type: Item
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn597340-irn628052/alternateIDs/1
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-camps/1982
scope and content: Commemorative postage stamp of Hungarian astronomer, Maximilian Hell, issued in Czechoslovakia in 1970 on the 250th anniversary of Hell’s birth and acquired by Leonie Roualet. The stamp depicts Hell on his scientific expedition in Norway to establish the distance between the earth and the sun. Leonie was born in New York to Leonie Calmesse and Henry Charles Roualet, French champagne vintners who had immigrated to the United States in the 1890s. In the 1930s, Leonie’s mother returned to France to take care of her ailing brother. While caring for her brother, she too became sick, and in 1939 Leonie traveled to France to take care of her mother and her uncle. In May 1940, Germany invaded France and occupied the northern half of the country. On September 24, 1942, the Gestapo arrested Leonie as an enemy alien and sent her to a prison in Châlons. From there she was transferred to Frontstalag 194 in the Vittel internment camp. She remained there for two years until the camp was liberated by Free French forces on September 12, 1944. Immediately following liberation, Leonie worked for the Red Cross and helped establish the first displaced persons (DP) camp in Paris. In December 1945, Leonie returned to the United States, accompanying a convoy of refugees at the request of the American Embassy. She settled in Cleveland, becoming director of the diocesan Catholic Resettlement Council, and helping resettle thousands of refugees from wars and political strife around the world.
identifier: irn628052
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Used, rectangular stamp printed with brown ink on cream-colored paper with perforated edges. There is a large, central rectangle surrounded by a narrow, blank border. Within the rectangle is a portrait of astronomer Maximilian Hell wearing a fur lined hat that is pointed at the top and hangs low on the sides, and a thick scarf. Czech text is printed across the top and bottom within the rectangle, and along the bottom border outside of the rectangle. The denomination is printed in the top right corner. There is a partial circular stamp in black ink over the bottom left. There is brown staining across the blank back.
history: Leonie Berthe Roualet (1900-1978) was born in Hammondsport, New York to Leonie (née Calmesse, 1869-1942) and Henry Charles Roualet (1866-?). Leonie and Henry were both originally from France, where they worked as champagne vintners. They immigrated to New York in 1890, where they continued to work as wine merchants. Leonie Berthe was raised Catholic and had two older brothers, Georges (George, 1891-1951) and Andre (Andrew, 1894-1973), and one older sister, Henriette (1898-1969). Georges served in the U.S. Navy during World War I aboard the USS Wisconsin. After the war, the entire family moved from New York to Cleveland, Ohio. In the 1930s, Leonie’s mother, Leonie Calmesse Roualet, returned to France to take care of her ailing brother. While caring for her brother, she too became sick, and in 1939 Leonie traveled to France to take care of her mother and her uncle. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and two days later France and Britain declared war on Germany, officially starting World War II. In May 1940, Germany invaded France and occupied the northern half of the country. Leonie’s sister, Henriette, began to worry about the fate of her mother and sister as she struggled to contact them, and she wrote repeatedly to the U.S. State Department for information on their whereabouts. In November, she received a telegram stating that her mother was in a hospital in Bordeaux, while her sister was living with their uncle in Épernay. On December 11, 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States. Following this declaration, German authorities began arresting American citizens in their occupied territories with the hope that they could exchange them with German citizens interned abroad. On September 24, 1942, the Gestapo arrested Leonie as an enemy alien and sent her to a prison in Châlons. From there she was transferred to Frontstalag 194 in the Vittel internment camp. In Vittel, Leonie lived in hotel-like acco…
date: 1970 February 17
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn597340-irn628052/acquisitions/1
title: Czechoslovakian postage stamp, 40 haléř, acquired by a former American internee