Herman and Celine Mandelbaum correspondence

Rose Mandelbaum Kessler (1922-2015) was born Rosa Mandelbaum, on 2 February 1922 in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Herman and Celine (née Pines) Mandelbaum. In addition to Rosa, the Mandelbaums had two other children, Walter (1924-1944) and Wilhelm (later William Manning, 1928-2005). Herman Mandelbaum was born in Bielitz, Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Bielsko-Biała, Poland) on 9 July 1896, and Celine Mandelbaum was born on 21 November 1895 in what was later Stanisławow, Poland (present day Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). Herman and Celine were married in Vienna on 17 April 1921, and Herman owned a factory that produced shoes and boots. In November 1939, Rose and her brothers left Vienna for the United States, arriving in New York on 5 December 1939. Their parents remained in Vienna until they were deported Modliborzyce, Poland on 5 March 1941. It was from there that they wrote to their children in New York, with the last of their correspondence from there having been sent in November 1941. There appear to be no extant records documenting what subsequently happened to the Mandelbaums, and following the war, they were declared to be dead by the municipal authorities in Vienna. Since the exact date of their death was unknown, their date of death was given as 8 May 1945, the date of the end of the war in Europe.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Vivian Kessler Berger

Gift of Vivian Kessler Berger, 2016.