Honig family papers

Honig family papers 

Honig family papers 

box 1 

The Honig family papers consist of Jack Honig’s passport and Jules Honig’s birth certificate, correspondence, a memoir, and restitution papers documenting the Honig family from Alsenz, Germany, Jules and Jack Honig’s immigration to the United States in 1939 and 1940, their mother’s death in the Holocaust, and their efforts to receive compensations from the German government for Nazi-era losses. Correspondence primarily consists of wartime letters among Jules and Jack Honig and their mother, Rudolfine Honig, including four letters during Rudolfine’s internment at Gurs. Letters describe daily life, convey family news, describe Jack Honig’s journey to England on a Kindertransport, and the brothers’ efforts to bring their mother and grandmother to the United States. This series also includes prewar family correspondence and postwar personal correspondence from Jules and Jack’s mother’s cousin, Alfred Sternheimer, containing family news as well as occasional updates about restitution proceedings. Many of the letters in this series are accompanied by translations provided by the donors. Jules Honig wrote his memoir, My Life, between 1991 and 1997. The memoir describes his childhood in Germany, his immigration to the United States, his American military service in Europe in 1944 and 1945, and his postwar life in the United States. Restitution files include correspondence, forms, financial records, and legal paperwork documenting the efforts of Jules and Jack Honig and their cousin Alfred Sternheimer to receive compensation from the German government for Nazi-era losses. Claims include antisemitic fines and taxes, the loss of Rudolfine Honig’s shoe store, forced auctions of her possessions, war damage to the Honig house, deprivation of liberty during Rudolfine’s internment at Gurs, and orphan pensions. 

The Honig family papers are arranged as four series: Series 1: Biographical materials, 1939 Series 2: Correspondence, 1929-2002 Series 3: Personal narrative, approximately 1991-1997 Series 4: Restitution files, 1941-1971