Embossed aluminum flat top steamer trunk used by a German Jewish refugee

Ernest Salomon Fried was born on July 15, 1904, in Landau, Germany, to Jewish parents, Maximillian, a lumber merchant, born on May 25, 1870, in Landau, and Hedwig Levi Fried, born on February 6, 1875, in Stuttgart, Germany. He had a sister, Ilse (1899-1926). The family lumber business, the Roos and Fried Co., was run by Maximillian, with his brother, Hugo, until Maximillian's death on June 14, 1907; Ernest took over when he was older. After the Nazi dictatorship was established in 1933, anti-Jewish laws were enacted and many rights were eliminated. In August 1938, Ernest and his cousin, Olga Fried (the widow of Hugo), were pressured into selling the family lumber business to wholesalers Weigard & Wickert. By early November 1938, Ernest and his mother were preparing to emigrate to the United States. They obtained visas, shipped belongings, and paid emigration and property taxes. On November 10, 1938, during Kristallnacht, the Nazis conducted a sweep of Landau. Ernest was arrested and put on a transport for Dachau concentration camp. During the trip, the guards discovered his emigration tax receipt, thus the Gestapo released Ernest on November 15 in Ludwigshafen. He returned to Landau and disposed of his remaining personal property. Ernest and his mother arrived in England via Switzerland and France, and sailed for the US from Southampton on the SS Manhattan on January 18, 1939, arriving and settling in New York. Between 1939 and the early 1940’s, Ernest worked as a longshoreman before entering the health food business. He converted to Protestantism and married Eleanor Lustig on July 14, 1945. The couple had two sons. Hedwig died in 1970 at the age of 95. Ernest died in New York in 1978 at 74 years old.

The steamer trunk was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Peter Fried, the son of Eleanor and Ernest Fried.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Peter Fried