United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Werner Meyerstein (1919-2001) was born on 24 July 1919 in Bremke, Germany to Hermann and Selma (née Wolff) Meyerstein. He had one sister, Gerda (later Gerda Rosenfeld, b. 19 August 1909) and one brother, Wolfgang (b. 10 January 1923). Hermann (1887-1957) worked as a kosher butcher. Werner’s mother died when he was young and his sister Gerda helped raise him. The family was Orthodox and spoke German at home. The Meyersteins left Bremke on 28 July 1937. They briefly lived in Göttingen and then split up. Werner and Hermann immigrated to London in 1939. Hermann remarried a woman named Emma Marx (1887-1967). Werner met Olga Sofie (b. 1921) in 1939 and they fell in love. They moved to a farm in Oxfordshire in October 1939. In spring 1940 Werner was interned as an “enemy alien” in a camp with other refugees. In October 1940 Werner and Olga immigrated to the Dominican Republic and settled in Sosúa where they became farmers. They married the day after their arrival in Sosúa. They had two daughters: Kathe Selma (b. 20 February 1941) and Edith (b. 19 February 1943). Hermann and Emma immigrated to the Dominican Republic in 1942. They later immigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago, Illinois. Werner and Olga separated in 1944. Werner married Ruth Echt in December 1951 and they had two daughters: Evelyn (b. 23 May 1953) and Hedy (b. 7 December 1955). Ruth Echt was born on 4 May 1929 to Erna (née Scharnitzki, 1904-1948) and Salomon (1899-1981) Echt. Ruth had three siblings: Eva (b. 1931), Bernhard (b. 1937), and Sara (b. 1938). Salomon was a farmer and the family lived in Gross-Kuhren (Primorye, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia). In November 1939 the family immigrated to Shanghai where they survived the Holocaust. In February 1947 they immigrated to the Dominican Republic and settled in Sosúa. Olga married Walter Felix Bloch in 1948. Olga, Walter, Kathe, and Edith emigrated from Sosúa to England in 1951 and the United States in 1952. They settled in New York. Her father perished at Auschwitz in 1944. Werner’s sister Gerda immigrated to Palestine around 1937 or 1938. Wolfgang remained in Germany when his father and brother left for England. During the Holocaust, Wolfgang was in Neuendorf bei Fürstenwalde until April 1943 when he was deported to Auschwitz. He was transferred to Buchenwald in January 1945 and then Dachau where he was liberated in April 1945 by the United States Army. Ruth Echt was born on 4 May 1929 to Erna (née Scharnitzki, 1904-1948) and Salomon (1899-1981) Echt. Ruth had three siblings: Eva (b. 1931), Bernhard (b. 1937), and Sara (b. 1938). Salomon was a farmer and the family lived in Gross-Kuhren (Primorye, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia). On 30 May 1939 Salomon sailed for Shanghai out of Bremen, Germany aboard the SS Marburg. Erna and her children left Bremen for Shanghai 9 August 1939 aboard the SS Coburg. The family survived the Holocaust in Shanghai and in February 1947 they immigrated to the Dominican Republic and settled in Sosúa. Ruth married Werner Meyerstein in in December 1951 and they had two daughters: Evelyn (b. 23 May 1953) and Hedy (b. 7 December 1955).
Copyright Holder: Ms. Taly Furer
box oversize folders 1 4
The collection is arranged as a single series.
The collection documents the Holocaust-era experiences of the Meyerstein family, originally of Bremke, Germany, including Werner Meyerstein and his father Hermann Meyerstein’s flight from Göttingen, Germany in 1939 to London, Werner and his wife Olga Sofie’s immigration to Sosúa, Dominican Republic in 1940, and his father’s immigration with his second wife Emma Marx to Sosúa in 1942. The collection also documents the experiences of Werner’s second wife, Ruth Echt, whose family fled Gross-Kuhren (Primorye, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia) in 1939 for Shanghai, where they survived the Holocaust. The collection includes family history and research, clippings, birth and death certificates, driver’s licenses, a butcher’s certificate, identification papers from Germany and the Dominican Republic, Erna Echt’s German passport, restitution paperwork, and a small amount of correspondence to Werner. Also included are primarily post-war family photographs from Sosúa, and identification papers of Ruth Echt from Shanghai.
Meyerstein and Echt families papers