us-005578-irn95747
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn95747/acquisitions/1
identifier: irn95747
biographical history: Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus were an affluent, secular Jewish couple from Philadelphia. Gilbert Kraus, an attorney, became increasingly distressed by reports of Nazi atrocities against German and Austrian Jews and became determined to do what he could to help. Kraus was approached by Louis Levine, then the Grand Master of Brith Sholom, to discuss a possible plan for Brith Sholom to organize a rescue mission. Kraus contacted Rep. Leon Sacks, who was elected to Congress in 1936. Sacks helped facilitate a meeting for Kraus and Levine with George Messersmith, an Assistant Secretary of State, to discuss their plan and present the very unusual approach that they be able to obtain unused visas. Though discouraging in their initial meeting, Messersmith sent a favorable memo to senior State Department officials in charge of the visa division and to Raymond Geist at the American embassy in Berlin about the group and their well-organized plan. Even with no guarantees in place, Brith Sholom raised all of the funds necessary to finance the rescue and offered to temporarily house the children in its summer camp. Eleanor worked to get sponsors who were willing to submit affidavits for the fifty children, finally securing fifty-four affidavits, in case there were any problems. In April 1939 Kraus headed to Europe with his friend Dr. Robert Schless, a German-speaking Jewish pediatrician from Philadelphia, to choose the fifty children. After realizing the enormity of the task, Kraus persuaded his wife Eleanor to leave their own children with friends and to join him in Vienna. Together they spent several weeks in Berlin and Vienna interviewing children and completing their emigration paperwork. Many desperate parents, all of whom were already in the process of trying to emigrate, came with their children to be interviewed and the final decision was made based on health and the sense that these children would be able to live apart from their parents. They obtained the fifty visas from the…
title: Eleanor Kraus memoir
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn95747/alternateIDs/1
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had holder: us-005578
has record set type: Item
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-terms/686
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
record resource extent: folder 1
scope and content: Consists of one typed memoir, 166 pages, written by Eleanor Kraus in the 1960s. In the memoir, she describes her experiences, with her husband Gilbert, traveling from Philadelphia to Vienna in 1939 to bring 50 children (later referred to as"the 50 Childre") to the United States with the support of the Brith Sholom organization.
conditions of use: Copyright Holder: Ms. Elizabeth Perle
type: RecordSet
date: circa 1960-1970