Leon Gildesgame papers

Identifier
irn611438
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2018.390.1
Dates
1 Jan 1945 - 31 Dec 1945
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • German
  • English
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

folder

1

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Leon Lazar Gildesgame (1894-1989) was born to Avraham and Devora (née Kotoski) Hildesheim in Sompolno, Poland, formerly imperial Russia. Leon was one of eight children born to Avraham and Devora. While some of the Hildesheim children were born in Europe others were born while the family resided in Palestine. While living in Palestine Leon volunteered with the Jewish Legion in WWI. Leon was a corporal in the Zion Mule Corps which saw action in the Gallipoli campaign. After his military service Leon relocated to England and became a naturalized British subject. It was at this time that he changed his surname to Gildesgame. With his brother Pierre, Leon became the proprietor of Gildesgame Brothers Ltd. and traveled frequently to the United States where he settled with his American born wife Ruth. throughout his life Leon was committed to philanthropic causes and he served on the Jewish Conciliation Board of America. During the Holocaust many of Leon's siblings were dispersed across the globe. One brother, Aron, was arrested in France in 1942 and deported to Auschwitz. A sister, Ala Brysz, and her daughter Yanina were killed in the Warsaw ghetto.

Archival History

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Myron L. Gildesgame.

Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Myron L. Gildesgame, son of Leon Gildesgame.

Scope and Content

Consists of a cover letter addressed to Meir Grossman of the American Jewish Conference by Leon Gildesgame and two original enclosures. The original enclosures include a typewritten account of SS-Unterscharführer Franz Xaver Sommerhoff articulating his participation in the killing of Jewish civilians and others, and a typewritten copy of First Army Special Report titled "It Happened in the Twentieth Century," detailing the interrogation of Dr. Gustav Wilhelm Schübbe. Schübbe, a medical doctor, admitted to the killings of thousands of Jews, Romani people, and others by morphine injection in German-occupied Kiev. Leon Gildesgame, who had lost loved ones during the Holocaust, forwarded these documents to the American Jewish Conference in the hope that the crimes articulated therein might be publicized.

System of Arrangement

Arranged as a single series.

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.