Marchen Quartett deck of fairy tale cards with box brought with a German Jewish refugee
Anneliese Centawer was born on January 10, 1930, to James and Recha Huetzler (Hützler) Centawer in Nuremberg, Germany. Her mother Recha was born on June 23, 1891, in Huettenbach, Germany, to Moritz (1840-1922) and Amalie Selig Huetzler (1857-1918.) Recha had four younger brothers and nine half-siblings from her father’s first marriage to Babette Talman. Recha was part of a very wealthy and large, extended family which owned several department stores and extensive financial holdings. Several family members immigrated to the United States in the 1880s. Recha’s father was a cattle dealer. Anneliese’s father James was born on July 21, 1888, in Nuremburg to Moritz (1830-1920) and Marie Gutmann Centawer (1854-1932.) His father operated a shoestore. James had a sister Henriette. James was a lieutenant in the German Army during World War I (1914-1918.) He then became the European trade representative for an electrical company that manufactured transformers. James and Recha married on August 17, 1924, and settled in Nuremberg. After the January 1933 appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, the Nazi dictatorship enacted plans to persecute Jews and exclude them from German society. Anneliese attended the Israelitsche Folkshul and was taught German and Jewish subjects. Antisemitism increased and, on one occasion, Anneliese was beaten by a member of the Hitler Youth who, because of her red hair and freckles, accused Anneliese of trying to pretend to be a German. In 1936, the family had to move because their block was declared Judenfrei [Free of Jews.] In March 1938, with sponsorship by three of Recha's half-siblings in the US, the family received American visas. Anneliese and her parents sailed from Hamburg on the Manhattan and arrived on July 7, 1938, in New York. The family settled in the Bronx in New York City. During the war, Anneliese’s father James worked for the US Office of War Information in the censorship bureau and then for the US Treasury Department. They learned that three of Recha's half-siblings: Ida, Leopold, and Siegmund Huetzler, perished during the Holocaust. James’s sister Henrietta is believed to have been killed in a concentration camp gas chamber. Anneliese graduated from Hunter College High School and received a cum laude degree from Hunter College in 1951. On August 26 of the same year, she married Gunther Marx. Gunther, born in 1926, in Remscheid, Germany, had fled to England, and then to America with his parents in 1939. He was a sergeant in the US Army during the war, from 1944-1946. The couple had a son. Anneliese pursued a career in public relations and was a corporate management consultant. Her mother Recha, 79, passed away on June 22, 1970. Her father James, 87, died on January 26, 1976.
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Marchen Quartett, a boxed deck of 40 cards for a fairy tale matching game brought with 8 year old Anneliese Centawer when she and her parents James and Recha fled Nazi Germany in July 1938. After Hitler and the Nazi regime's seizure of power in 1933, the Jewish population was subjected to increasingly harsh persecution. In 1936, Anneliese's family was forced to move from their home in Nuremberg when their block was declared Judenfrei (Free of Jews.) Anneliese was beaten up on the street by a Hitler Youth who accused the freckled, red haired girl of trying to pass for German. In July 1938, with sponsorship from Recha's half-siblings in the US, the family arrived in New York.
7a. Rectangular, telescoping cardboard box lid with treated green paper covering the exterior. Adhered to the top exterior is a paper label with a colorful fairy tale scene from 1 of the cards, a dark haired woman smiling at a table of little men with tall cone hats, Schneewittchen [Snow White], and German text. Some corners are detaching. 7b. Rectangular cardboard box base covered with treated green paper with glossy white paper glued on the bottom. The lid rests upon a small lip at the bottom when closed. There is a removable, cardboard insert with a cloth string threaded through the center to protect the boxed cards. 7c-ap. Intact deck of 40 oversize, rectangular laminated cards depicting 10 fairy tales, 4 cards per story. The front of each card has a symbol, the title, and a different subtitle, above a colorful illustration of a scene from the fairy tale. The back has a blue and white pattern of repeating triangles and the publisher’s logo: Spear within a cross within a circle. 7c-f. Hansel and Gretel 4 card set: symbol, an orange cookie with a face; title, Hansel und Gretel; subtitles: (7c) A1. Im Walde verirrt. [Lost in the woods.] (7d) A2. Vor dem Hexenhaus. [In front of the Witch’s house.] (7e) A3. Hansel im Gansestall. [Hansel in the Goose coop.] (7f) A4. Die Heimkehr. [The return home.] 7g-j. Snow White 4 card set: symbol, an orange apple; title, Schneewittchen; subtitles: (7g) B1. Bei den sieben Zwergen. [With the seven Dwarves.] (7h) B2. Die eitle und bose Stiefmutter. [The vain and evil stepmother.] (7i) B3. Der vergiftete Apfel. [The poisoned apple.] (7j) B4. Der Prinz. [The Prince.] 7k-n. Sleeping Beauty 4 card set: symbol, a pink rose; title, Dornroschen; subtitles: (7k) C1. Die Alte in der Turmstube. [The old woman in the tower room.] (7l) C2. Dornroschen sticht sich in den Finger. [Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger.] (7m) C3. Dornroschen im Zauberschlaf. [Sleeping Beauty in the enchanted sleep.] (7n) C4. Der rettende Prinz. [The rescuing prince.] 7o-r. Cinderella 4 card set, symbol: a gold shoe, title: Aschenputtel, subtitles: (7o) D1. Aschenputtel am Grab der Mutter. [Cinderella at the grave of her Mother.] (7p) D2. Die guten ins Topfchen, Die schlechten ins Kropfchen. [The good into the pot, the bad into the crop. (7q) D3. Aschenputtel im Festkleid. [Cinderella in her ball gown.] (7r) D4. Ruckedigu! Gar gut passt der Schuh. [Ruckedigu (the sound a sparrow makes)! The shoe fits.] 7s-v. Little Red Riding Hood 4 card set, symbol: a wolf head; title, Rotkappchen, subtitles: (7s) E1. Auf dem Wege zur Grossmutter. [On the way to Grandmother’s.] (7t) E2. Der Wolf in Grossmutters Bett. [The wolf in Grandmother’s bed.] (7u) E3. Der Jager kommt. [The Hunter comes.] (7v) E4. Nach glucklicher Errettung. [After a lucky rescue.] 7w-z. Land of Milk and Honey 4 card set, symbol: pigeon pierced by knife and fork, title: Schlaraffenland, subtitles: (7w) F1. Der Kuchenberg. [Cake mountain.] (7x) F2. Die gebratenen Tauben / fliegen in den Mund. [Roast pigeons flying into the mouth.] (7y) F3. Das gebratene Schwein. [Roasted pig.] (7z) F4. Der Faulste wird Schlaraffenkonig. [The laziest becomes king of the land of milk and honey.] 7aa-ad. Ragamuffins 4 card set: symbol, a light blue egg; title, Das Lumpengesindel; subtitles: (7aa) G1. Die Fahrt auf den Nussberg. [The trip to Nussberg.] (7ab) G2. Vor dem Wirtshaus. [In front of the inn.] (7ac) G3. Die Flucht. [The escape.] (7ad) G4. Der betrogene Wirt. [The deceived host.] 7ae-ah. Wolf and the 7 Sheep 4 card set: symbol, silver scissors; title, Der Wolf u. die 7 Geisslein; subtitles: (7ae) H1. Mutter Geiss warnt ihre Kleinen vor dem Wolf. [Mother Goat warns her little ones against the wolf.] (7af) H2. Eins ist hinter den Milchtopf gesprungen. [Bechstein.] [One jumps behind the milk pot. (Bechstein.)] (7ag) H3. Mutter Geiss will dem Wolf / den Bauch aufschneiden. [Mother Goat wants the wolf’s belly cut.] (7ah) H4. Der Tanz um den Brunnen, in dem der Wolf liegt. [Dancing around the well where the wolf lies.] 7ai-al. Thumbelina 4 card set, all with the symbol, a blue sparrow, the title Daumelinchen, but different subtitles: (7ai) J1. In der Wunderblume. [In the wonder flower.] (7aj) J2. Bei der Feldmaus. [With the field mouse.] (7ak) J3. Der Flug auf der / Schwalbe. [The flight on the swallow.] (7al) J4. als Blumenkonigin. [As the flower queen. 7am-ap. Hedgehog and the Hare 4 card set: symbol, a yellow bottle; title Swinegel und der Hase; subtitles: (7am) K1. Swinegel am Sonntagmorgen. [Hedgehog on Sunday morning.] (7an) K2. Die Begegnung mit dem Hasen. [The encounter with the hare.] (7ao) K3. Der Wettlauf mit dem Hasen. [The race with the hare.] (7ap) K4. Branntwein und Goldstuck. [Brandy and jewel.] 7aq. Bi-folded instruction sheet with black typed text on the front and back. Summary: The object is to match the 4 cards that belong together. The person with the most quartets at the end of the game wins.
The playing cards were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013 by Anneliese Marx.
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a: Height: 1.250 inches (3.175 cm) | Width: 3.250 inches (8.255 cm) | Depth: 4.750 inches (12.065 cm) b: Height: 1.250 inches (3.175 cm) | Width: 3.375 inches (8.573 cm) | Depth: 4.875 inches (12.383 cm) c-ap: Height: 4.125 inches (10.478 cm) | Width: 2.750 inches (6.985 cm) aq: Height: 4.125 inches (10.478 cm) | Width: 5.375 inches (13.653 cm)