Klick-Klack handheld pinball game with box brought with a young German Jewish refugee
Extent and Medium
a: Height: 6.500 inches (16.51 cm) | Width: 4.250 inches (10.795 cm) | Depth: 1.000 inches (2.54 cm)
b: Height: 6.375 inches (16.192 cm) | Width: 4.500 inches (11.43 cm) | Depth: 0.875 inches (2.223 cm)
Creator(s)
- Anneliese C. Marx (Subject)
Biographical History
Anneliese Centawer was born on January 10, 1930, to James and Recha Huetzler (Hützler) Centawer in Nuremberg, Germany. Her mother Recha was born on June 23, 1891, in Huettenbach, Germany, to Moritz (1840-1922) and Amalie Selig Huetzler (1857-1918.) Recha had four younger brothers and nine half-siblings from her father’s first marriage to Babette Talman. Recha was part of a very wealthy and large, extended family which owned several department stores and extensive financial holdings. Several family members immigrated to the United States in the 1880s. Recha’s father was a cattle dealer. Anneliese’s father James was born on July 21, 1888, in Nuremburg to Moritz (1830-1920) and Marie Gutmann Centawer (1854-1932.) His father operated a shoestore. James had a sister Henriette. James was a lieutenant in the German Army during World War I (1914-1918.) He then became the European trade representative for an electrical company that manufactured transformers. James and Recha married on August 17, 1924, and settled in Nuremberg. After the January 1933 appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, the Nazi dictatorship enacted plans to persecute Jews and exclude them from German society. Anneliese attended the Israelitsche Folkshul and was taught German and Jewish subjects. Antisemitism increased and, on one occasion, Anneliese was beaten by a member of the Hitler Youth who, because of her red hair and freckles, accused Anneliese of trying to pretend to be a German. In 1936, the family had to move because their block was declared Judenfrei [Free of Jews.] In March 1938, with sponsorship by three of Recha's half-siblings in the US, the family received American visas. Anneliese and her parents sailed from Hamburg on the Manhattan and arrived on July 7, 1938, in New York. The family settled in the Bronx in New York City. During the war, Anneliese’s father James worked for the US Office of War Information in the censorship bureau and then for the US Treasury Department. They learned that three of Recha's half-siblings: Ida, Leopold, and Siegmund Huetzler, perished during the Holocaust. James’s sister Henrietta is believed to have been killed in a concentration camp gas chamber. Anneliese graduated from Hunter College High School and received a cum laude degree from Hunter College in 1951. On August 26 of the same year, she married Gunther Marx. Gunther, born in 1926, in Remscheid, Germany, had fled to England, and then to America with his parents in 1939. He was a sergeant in the US Army during the war, from 1944-1946. The couple had a son. Anneliese pursued a career in public relations and was a corporate management consultant. Her mother Recha, 79, passed away on June 22, 1970. Her father James, 87, died on January 26, 1976.
Archival History
The game was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013 by Anneliese Marx.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Anneliese C. Marx
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Klick Klack, a handheld pinball game brought with 8 year old Anneliese Centawer when she and her parents James and Recha fled Nazi Germany in July 1938. After Hitler and the Nazi regime's seizure of power in 1933, the Jewish population was subjected to increasingly harsh persecution. In 1936, Anneliese's family was forced to move from their home in Nuremberg when their block was declared Judenfrei (Free of Jews.) Anneliese was beaten up on the street by a Hitler Youth who accused the freckled, red haired girl of trying to pass for German. In July 1938, with sponsorship from Recha's half-siblings in the US, the family arrived in New York.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
a. Arch shaped, brown and red streaked, molded plastic, handheld pinball game with downward sloping sides and a recessed game board covered by a yellow tinted plastic sheet riveted to the outer edges. The game board has 11 ridge lined pockets with recessed, gold painted numbers. Along the bottom and right is a channeled shooter lane for 11 gold colored metal balls. A thin, silver colored metal panel is screwed across the exterior bottom edge; this is the plunger that pulls back, and when released, launches the balls up into the sloped playing field. The back has a deep, hollow outer rim to support the game surface and embossed patent information. b. Rectangular, cardboard, straight tuck end box covered with brown paper with a torn off, missing lid. The front is printed with the game description in 4 languages and the back has instructions in German text.
b. base, back top, handwritten, pencil : E 0 9/n 8 4 [-illegible] 8, 250 / 10, 780
Subjects
- Jewish children in the Holocaust--Germany--Nuremberg--Biography.
- Jewish refugees--United States--Biography.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Nuremberg--Personal narratives.
- Popular culture--Germany--History--20th century.
- Emigration and immigration--United States--Biography.
- Jews--Germany--Nuremberg--Biography.
- Emigration and immigration--Germany--Nuremberg--Biography.
Genre
- Object
- Toys