Waldapfel family papers

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

Waldapfel family papers 

folders 3 

The Waldapfel family papers include correspondence, immigration documents, and photographs documenting Irma Waldapfel, her children Valerie, Max, and Karoline, and their Waldapfel and Fischer relatives. Correspondence includes postcards sent from Czechoslovakia to Irma, Valerie, and Karoline during the interwar period and letters Irma and Karoline sent from Vienna to Valeria and Max in New York. Immigration documents consist of a Queen Mary passenger list and handwritten notes documenting Irma’s and Karoline’s itinerary from Vienna to Cherbourg to New York. Photographs depict Irma, Karoline, and their dog “Peterl” in Vienna as well as Waldapfel and Fischer relatives in Vienna and Czechoslovakia. 

The collection is arranged in three folders: Folder 1. Correspondence, 1929-1938 Folder 2. Immigration, 1938 Folder 3. Photographs, circa 1920-1938 

Sigmund Waldapfel (1861-1924) was born in Považská Bystrica (now Slovakia), and Irma Waldapfel (nee Fischer, 1876-1965) was born in Čadca (now Slovakia). They married and had three children: Valerie (1904-2001), Max (1907-1997), and Karoline (1910-1984). Valerie and Max were born in in Přívoz (Oderfurt, now Czech Republic) before the family moved to Vienna, where Karoline was born. Valerie immigrated to the United States in 1923, Max in 1928, and Karoline and their mother Irma in 1938. The family changed their name to Wald after immigration.