Lilienthal and Fraenkel families papers

Dr. Eugen Lilienthal (1876-1947?) was born in Cologne, Germany on 24 July 1876. After obtaining his medical degree from the University of Freiburg in 1901, he set up an internal medicine practice in Berlin, being accepted into the Berliner Medizische Gesellschaft (Berlin Medical Society) in 1905. Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Dr. Lilienthal was eventually forced to give up his medical practice, and on 18 March 1943, was deported to Theresienstadt, where he was eventually liberated by Allied forces in 1945. Following his liberation, he found his way to the Deggendorf displaced persons camp in Bavaria, where he tried to establish contact with his daughter and son-in-law, Margot and Max Fraenkel, who had emigrated prior to the war. Eventually he was successful, and managed to immigrate to the United States and rejoin them in New York. His internment at Theresienstadt, however, left him with a number of serious health problems, including diabetes, and he eventually succumbed from those a couple of years after his immigration, in 1947.

Margot Lilienthal Fraenkel (1909-1988) was born on 16 February 1909 in Berlin, and her husband, Max Fraenkel (1903-1980), was born on 22 February 1903 in Beuthen, Germany (present-day Bytom, Poland). After their marriage, they established a home in Berlin, but due to Nazi persecution, sought to emigrate, seeking assistance from relatives of Max who had settled in the United States. They were successful, and left Germany on 16 March 1939 on the S.S. Deutschland, and arriving in New York a week later. They settled in Brooklyn, where Max, who had previously worked as a businessman in Germany, was initially a night watchman at a department store, before obtaining a position as a salesman at a luggage store in Manhattan. Subsequently he worked as a freight-forwarder, which led him to relocate the family to Miami in 1952, due to a position he took with Pan American Airways. Margot trained to work as a diamond cutter in New York, but after moving to Miami, joined her husband in the freight-forwarding business. The Fraenkels had one son, Ronald, who after obtaining law degrees from the University of Florida and George Washington University, served in the United States Army for 20 years as a JAG officer, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He subsequently served as general counsel in the Florida Department of Veteran Affairs and as assistant state attorney for the State of Florida, until his retirement in 2010.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ronald Frankel

Gift of Ronald Frankel, the grandson of Eugen Lilienthal and son of Max and Margot Fraenkel, 2016.