The Beller and Tennenbaum families in NYC after the Holocaust

Identifier
irn1005064
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2015.311
  • RG-60.1778
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Silent
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Paul Beller was born around 1932 in Vienna to Leo and Mina (Tennenbaum) Beller. He was one of the Fifty Children (the 50 children) rescued in 1939 by the Americans, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus. Paul lived with the Amram family in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, for about a year. His mother, Mina, obtained a visa for the United States, arrived in late January 1940, and settled in New York City. His father, Leo, waited out the war in a British detention facility on the island of Mauritius, where he had been sent after being caught trying to enter Palestine illegally. After the war, he was allowed to immigrate to the United States, sailing on a freighter that arrived in Baltimore in July 1946 Paul attended City College of New York and later obtained a master's degree in public administration from New York University. He spent two years int he U.S. Army, after which he began a forty-year career with the federal government, most of it working for the national Medicare office his Maryland. Paul and his wife, Glenda, have three children, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. They live in New Jersey.

Leo (Simche Leib) Beller was from an agricultural family in Poland and arrived in Vienna in 1915. He married Mina Tennenbaum on November 18, 1928 in the Siebenbrunnen-temple of Vienna. He was employed in a hardware store and taken in as a partner in the Tennenbaum family's established plywood business. Since he was not an Austrian citizen and considered stateless, he decided to undergo (unnecessary) appendix surgery and escaped to Bratislava. He waited out the war in a British detention facility on the island of Mauritius, where he had been sent after being caught trying to enter Palestine illegally. After the war, he was allowed to immigrate to the United States, sailing on a freighter that arrived in Baltimore in July 1946. Mina arrived in the US in late January 1940.

Leo (Leib) Tennenbaum owned a plywood warehouse in Vienna X, Favoriten Strasse 87. He was married to Malka. They had three children: Mina, Emil, and Marcus. Leib and Malka successfully escaped the Nazis and arrived in the United States with Dora Tennenbaum and her children, Edith and George, in November 1939.

Scope and Content

Leo Beller with Leib and Malka Tennenbaum in Fort Tryon Park in New York City on October 24, 1954. More of the Beller family, including Mina. Paul Beller in U.S. Army uniform, visiting his parents on November 7, 1954 in New York City. Paul walks towards the camera on a city sidewalk with his grandfather Leib. A young woman and child walk along and play on a slide.

Note(s)

  • Paul Beller, Mina and Leo Beller, and Malke and Leib Tennenbaum appear in the Tennenbaum family home movies taken before the war in Vienna on Film ID 2763.

Subjects

Places

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.