Teitz family papers
Extent and Medium
box
oversize box
oversize folders
2
1
7
Creator(s)
- Teitz family
Biographical History
Emil Teitz (1895-1953) was born on 18 February 1895 in Fürth, Germany to Abraham David (1855-1936) and Klara (née Ichenhauser 1866-1947) Teitz. He had two brothers, Leo (b. 1891) and Max (1897-1943), and one sister, Betty (later Betty Goldsmith, b. 1893). His father worked as a doctor. Sofie Luise Ollesheimer (1901-1996) was born on 7 March 1901 in Fürth to Mathilde Aal (1871-1927) and Theobald Ollesheimer (1863-1957). Emil was a veteran of World War I and worked as a traveling salesman for L. Auerbach and Company, a company that manufactured powders for printing inks. He and Sofie married in Fürth in 1923. They had two sons, Arthur Werner (1925-1943) and Walter Irving (1930-1987). Werner was born with physical disabilities, possibly cerebral palsy, and spent from 1931-1938 in a medical facility in Munich. The Jewish owners of Emil’s company were forced to sell their business by the Nazis in 1936, and Emil was fired from his job for being Jewish in 1938. After Kristallnacht, the family began making plans to emigrate from Germany. The same year, the medical facility in Munich halted care of Werner because he was Jewish. Emil and Sofie managed to get him out of Germany in December 1938 and into a facility in the Hillegersberg neighborhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands. In January 1939 Walter went on a Kindertransport to Amsterdam. While his parents were waiting for their American visas, they were able to get to England. Walter joined his parents in London in June 1939, but Werner remained in the Netherlands. They received their visas in March 1940 and Emil, Sophie, and Walter sailed to the United States aboard the SS Volendam. The family settled in New York where Sophie sewed gloves and Emil worked as a salesman. After he arrived in the United States, Emil worked to help other relatives emigrate from Germany, including his mother Klara. By 1942 his brother Leo and sister Betty had both immigrated to the United States, but his brother Max and his wife Isabel perished at Auschwitz. Sofie’s father Theobald survived the Holocaust in Sweden and immigrated to the United States in 1945. Emil and Sofie were unsuccessful at rescuing their son Werner, however, and learned after the war that he was deported from Westerbork to the Sobibór extermination camp in May 1943 where he perished. Walter married Marian Solleridge (b. 1933) and they had three children: Warren (b. 1964), Jean (b. 1965), and Susan (b. 1969).
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Dumais, Teitz and Zuckerman families
Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by the Dumais, Teitz and Zuckerman families.
Scope and Content
The collection documents the Holocaust experiences of the Teitz family of Fürth, Germany including pre-war life in Germany, their emigration from Germany to England and the United States, the care of their physically disabled son Werner in the Netherlands and the post-war search for his fate, and restitution claims. Included are biographical documents, immigration papers, correspondence, and photographs. Biographical material consists of identification documents, a family book, poems and writings by Emil and others, and restitution paperwork. Papers of Emil include identification documents, papers related to his German military service, and employment at L. Auerbach and Company. Documents of Werner’s include papers from the Munich facility where he received care stating that he could no longer remain there because he was Jewish, documents regarding his care in the Netherlands, and his parent’s search for his fate during and after the war. Immigration papers consist of paperwork for Emil, Sofie, Walter, and Sofie’s father Theobald Ollensheimer for England and the United States. There is a file of negatives associated with this series which are housed separately and may have access restrictions. Correspondence primarily consists of wartime letters written to Emil and Sofie. Included are letters from Emil’s mother Klara; Walter in Amsterdam, England, and summer camps in the United States; Werner in the care facility in Rotterdam; and an aunt Sabine Schoenthal. Photographs include depictions of the Teitz family in Fürth, England, and the United States as well as relatives in the Teitz and Ollensheimer family. The photograph album is annotated and includes depictions of the Teitz family and relatives from circa 1930-1978.
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged as four series. Series 1. Biographical material, circa 1895-1983 Series 2. Immigration, 1938-1946 Series 3. Correspondence, 1907-1987 Series 4. Photographs, circa 1870-1982
People
- Teitz, Klara, 1866-1947.
- Teitz, Walter, 1930-1987.
- Ollsesheimer, Theobald, 1863-1957.
- Teitz, Emil, 1895-1953.
- Teitz, Sofie, 1901-1996.
- Teitz, Werner, 1925-1943.
- Teitz family
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Reparations.
- Jewish refugees--Netherlands.
- Fürth (Germany)
- England--Emigration and immigration.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Children.
- People with disabilities--Germany.
- United States--Emigration and immigration.
- Jewish refugees--England.
- Jewish refugees--United States.
- Rotterdam (Netherlands)
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document
- Photograph albums.
- Correspondence.