November-Brandeis family papers

Correspondence, identification documents, immigration forms, and related documentation concerning the family of Mendel and Lea Brandel (Bronka) November, their exile in the Soviet Union during World War II, their correspondence with Mrs. November’s family in Poland during the German occupation, and their subsequent return to Poland after the war and immigration to Israel. The bulk of the correspondence and documents relate to the experiences of Mendel November and his wife, Lea Brandel (Bronka). The documents in this collection are arranged according to type and origin. One series of correspondence consists of postcards and letters that the family received from Bronka’s mother Adela, often with greetings from Hinda Findling and Regina Brandeis as well, all of whom remained in Dukla, after the German occupation of that region. Correspondence from the Brandeis family stopped in mid 1941, although Bronka’s brother Aron (Abraham?) sent several postcards written in Russian, from Berlin and Lublin in 1945, toward the end of World War II. A separate set of correspondence contains letters sent to and from Henry Hirschberg, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who was related to the Brandeis family through marriage. Hirschberg, in a notarized statement of 1946, attested that “my wife Rachel G. Hirschberg née Findling” was “the late mother of” of Lea Brandel November (née Brandeis) and Abraham Brandeis, and that she was a sister of “Mrs. Ides Brandeis, née Findling,” presumably Adela Brandeis. Correspondence from the Hirschberg family (Henry, wife Gisela, son Julius Harris) includes cards seeking to establish contact—apparently unsuccessfully--with Adela Brandeis and her family in Poland after the war. Correspondence from other friends and family members is filed separately from the Hirschberg and Brandeis correspondence. The latter group of documents pertain to the Novembers’ experiences in the Soviet Union during the war, their return to Poland in 1946, and their attempts to emigrate after that. Included are letters attesting to Mendel November’s employment with various firms in the Soviet Union, documents pertaining to the search for any living Brandeis family members in Poland, and documents from the family’s early years in Israel during the 1950s.

The correspondence files are arranged in three series: Brandeis Family correspondence, Hirschberg Family correspondence, and Other correspondence. A fourth series titled “Biographical files” contains identification and immigration documents, and related items that can be used to establish places where the November family lived and worked, and a chronology of their lives. Each of these series is arranged in chronological order.