Rabbi William Z. Dalin family papers

Rabbi William Z. Dalin (born Velvel Zev Dolinsky, 1906-1996) was born in Šiauliai, Lithuania to Shlomo Zalman (1871-1911) and Rachel Dolinsky (née Boner, 1875-1945). He had four siblings: Mina (1896-1974), Simcha (1898-1990), Mendel (1901-1912), and Bluma (1904-1942). Shlomo was a rabbi, and William studied at the Slobodka yeshiva where his father taught. He immigrated to the United States in 1926 to continue his studies and settled in New York. In 1944 William married Bella Boner (born in Johannesburg, South Africa, d. 2009), whom he met in Palestine in 1935. The same year, William enlisted with the United States Army and served as a chaplain, first in Phoenix, Arizona and then India. From March 1946-1947 he was stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany where he served as the only Jewish chaplain of the U.S. Air Corps. He assisted Jewish displaced person in Zeilsheim, Landsberg, and other DP camps. He also served as an aide to Rabbi Philip Bernstein and Judge Louis Leventhal, the advisors on Jewish affairs to General Lucius Clay. He and Bella moved to San Francisco in 1948 where he worked with the Jewish Welfare Board’s Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy. He also continued to serve as Reserve Chaplain at the Letterman Army Hospital until 1986. William and Bella had two sons: David and Ralph, both of whom also became rabbis.

Leo Loeb (born Leo Löb, 1910-1988) was born in Grosskrozenberg, Germany to Solomon and Jenny Löb. He had one brother, Julius. Solomon was a World War I veteran and worked as a kosher butcher. The family was Orthodox and had many relatives in nearby towns. Around 1939, Leo was arrested for allegedly speaking with a non-Jewish woman and deported to a labor camp. He was then put on a train to another camp when a Nazi from Grosskrotzenberg recognized him and pulled him off the train. Leo then fled Germany, hoping to go to Palestine, but was refused entry by British soldiers. He was then able to reach Shanghai in 1939, where he remained until immigrating to the United States in 1947. He settled in San Francisco and married Martha Bermann (born in 1914 in Mainz), who was also a Holocaust survivor. Their daughter Hedy was born in 1953 and later married Rabbi Ralph Dalin. Leo’s mother perished in the Holocaust, but his brother survived in Palestine.

Helene Dreydel (born Helene Jakob) was born on 9 November 1914 in Wolfskehlen, Riedstadt, Germany to Ferdinand (1881-1944) and Ida Johanna Jakob (née Neustädter, 1884-1942). She had one sister, Alice (1917-1944). On 19 July 1937 Ferdinand was arrested and imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for three and a half months. After his release, he was hospitalized due to injuries sustained at the camp. Helene fled to England in 1939. In March 1940 she married Siegfried Dreydel (later known as Freddie), whom she knew from Frankfurt am Main, Germany and was living in the Kitchener refugee camp. He had previously been imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp. In May 1940 he immigrated to the United States and they would not be reunited until 1945. They settled in Cleveland, OH. She became a surrogate mother to Hedy Loeb after her family visited Helene and Siegfried in Cleveland. Helene had been able to communicate to her sister Alice through the Red Cross, but lost contact by 1942. She learned after the war that her father, mother, and sister were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on 15 September 1942. Johanna died in Theresienstadt. Ferdinand, Alice, and Alice’s son Jochmann (1939-1944) were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp where they perished in 1944.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ralph and Hedy Dalin

Rabbi Ralph Dalin, his wife Hedy Dalin, and Rabbi David Dalin donated the Rabbi William Z. Dalin family papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003 and 2017. The accessions numbered 2005.108 and 2017.655 have been incorporated into this collection. Rabbis David and Ralph Dalin are the sons of Rabbi William Dalin.