United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Ursula Lowenstein was born in Ronnenberg, Germany in 1923 to cattle dealer Siegfried Seligman and his wife Alma. Siegfried was sent to Buchenwald during Kristallnacht and purchased tickets for the MS St. Louis with his wife and daughter upon his release. When the ship was returned to Europe, the Seligmanns disembarked in Belgium and lived in Brussels until the German invasion. Siegfried was arrested as an enemy alien and transported to the internment camp at Les Milles, France. Alma and Ursula followed him to France to try to find him but were arrested in Paris and detained in the internment camp at Gurs. In 1941 they received their visas for the United States, were reunited in Marseilles, and sailed from Lisbon for New York that November. They arrived in America just days before the Pearl Harbor attack, settled in Washington, DC, and were reunited with Ursula’s sister, Else (1920-2003), who had succeeded in immigrating to America on her own in 1939.
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The Siegfried and Alma Seligmann family papers are arranged as three series: I. Biographical materials, 1938-1941, II. Camp documents, 1940-1941, III. Emigration and immigration records, 1939-1941
The Siegfried and Alma Seligmann family papers consist of biographical materials, camp documents, and emigration and immigration records documenting the Seligmanns’ journey aboard the MS St. Louis, return to Europe and brief stay in Belgium, internment in France, and immigration to the United States via Lisbon. Biographical materials include identification papers, German and Belgian registration certificates, and vaccination certificates. Camp documents include lyrics to the Gurs and St. Cyprien camp song “Ich kann sie nicht mehr seh’n die Pyrénéen,” a summons to appear in Gurs, and a certificate of good conduct from Les Milles. Emigration and immigration records include correspondence documenting support the family received as refugees in Belgium and their efforts to obtain American visas and book passage to the United States as well as travel documents from their journeys aboard the St. Louis and the Portuguese ship Colonial that brought them to the United States.
Siegfried and Alma Seligmann family papers