Neumann family papers
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Neumann family
Biographical History
Karl Neumann (b. 1931) and Greta Neumann Flaum (b. 1933) were born in Vienna to physician and World War I veteran Ernst Neumann (later Ernest, b. 1897, Vienna) and Gertrud Bernblum Neumann (b. 1898, Vienna). The family celebrated Jewish holidays and also had a Christmas tree in the house every December. Gertrud was a socialist, and the family was friendly with Karl Kautsky, Jr., an obstetrician and socialist and son of Karl Kautsky, a prominent communist leader in Germany. Karl Kautsky, Jr. and his wife Lotte helped connect Ernst and Gertrude with Swedish Quakers, who organized a Swedish foster family for Karl and Greta. The children traveled via Berlin to Motala, Sweden, where for nearly two years they stayed with physician Karl Ekman and his wife Margit, an older couple who had grandchildren the same age as Karl and Greta. Meanwhile, Ernst and Gertrud Neumann sailed from Genoa to New York, arriving in March 1940 and staying with Lotte and Karl Kautsky, Jr. on the Upper West Side. Ernst worked at Israel Zion Hospital (now Maimonides), and the couple moved to the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. In late 1940, they organized for Karl and Greta to join them in New York via a two month eastward journey from Sweden via Riga, Moscow, Vladivostok, Tokyo, Vancouver, Seattle, and Chicago. The children were accompanied by Edith Stern, a 17-year old German Jewish girl who had also spent time in Sweden and was joining her parents in Buffalo. In 1944, Ernst opened a medical office in Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Throughout the war, Ernst and Gertrud sent money to help the children’s Swedish foster parents, and the children stayed in touch with the Ekmans. Gertrud’s mother and Ernst’s father both perished at Theresienstadt. Ernst’s brothers Gustav and Paul perished at other camps, and his brother Leo’s family was shot in Prague. Karl Neumann studied medicine and became a pediatrician.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Greta Neumann Flaum and Karl Neumann
Greta Neumann Flaum and Karl Neumann donated the Neumann family papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2015.
Scope and Content
The Neumann family papers consist of biographical materials, photographs, and restitution files documenting the Neumann family from Vienna, Gertrud and Ernst Neumann’s immigration from Vienna to the United States in 1940, and their children Karl and Greta’s immigration from Sweden via Riga, Vladivostok, Tokyo, Vancouver, and Seattle in 1941. Biographical materials include birth, marriage, registration, immigration, medical, military, and student records. Photographs primarily date from before World War II and depict the Neumann family and their relatives including, among others, Ernst’s brother Paul and their brother Leo’s wife Elsa and daughters Eva, and Lisl. Photocopies of a January 1941 newspaper article document Karl’s and Greta’s arrival in the United States. Restitution files document the family’s pre-war assets and Ernst and Karl’s efforts to receive restitution including health insurance and pension payments.
System of Arrangement
The Neumann family papers are arranged as four series: I. Biographical materials, 1897-1996 II. Photographs, approximately 1890-1959 III. Printed materials, 1941 IV. Restitution files, 1954-2015
Subjects
- Vienna (Austria)
- Jewish refugees--Sweden--Motala.
- Jews--Austria--Vienna.
- United States--Emigration and immigration.
- Jewish physicians--Austria.
- Motala (Sweden)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Reparations.
Genre
- Certificates.
- Photographs.
- Document