Liesl Joseph Loeb papers
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Liesl J. Loeb
Biographical History
Liesl Joseph was born in Rheydt, Germany, on June 17,1928, the only child of Josef, born November 9, 1882, in Altenbamberg, and Lilly Salmon Joseph, born April 25,1901, in Odenkirchen. Her father was a successful lawyer and a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD.) The family was wealthy, with a twenty room house, servants, and a governess for Liesl. Following Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in 1933, political opposition was violently suppressed. The SPD was one of the few political organizations that tried to resist Nazi rule. Josef was blacklisted for his membership in the SPD and barely escaped arrest. Civil rights for all citizens were soon abolished and antisemitic policies became increasingly punitive. Gentile friends stopped associating with them, and Liesl had stones thrown at her as she walked to school. During Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938, Josef was arrested. The next night, a mob broke into their home; Lilly and Liesl hid with their non-Jewish tenants on the third floor. Everything was destroyed - the furnishings, all belongings, and the windows and doors were smashed. Lilly and Liesl left to live with Lilly’s relatives in Bonn. Josef was being held in a local jail and soon was released on the condition that he leave the country. They purchased tickets for a trip aboard the Hamburg-America luxury liner, MS St. Louis, sailing to Havana, Cuba. They left Hamburg on May 13, 1939, and arrived in Cuba on May 27. Nearly all of the 937 passengers were Jewish refugees hoping to escape from Nazi dominated Europe. The plan was to wait in Cuba for permission to enter the US, but Cuban authorities denied entry to all but 28 passengers. Josef, skilled as a lawyer and negotiator, was asked to chair the passenger committee. Liesl remember feeling that “as long as my father was involved, we would be all right. He was busy telegraphing and communicating with the rest of the world trying to find a safe place for the passengers." The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee negotiated with the Cuban president for refuge but, after a week, the ship was ordered to leave the harbor. Despite urgent pleas to the United States government, the US President and Congress chose not to make any special exceptions to the stiff US quota limits and the refugees were denied permission to enter the US. Captain Schroeder took the ship within sight of the Florida coast, before heading back to Europe on June 6. Jewish aid organizations had negotiated with four European governments, Belgium, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands to admit the passengers rather than return them to Germany. The Joseph family disembarked in Antwerp, Belgium, on June 17, Liesl’s eleventh birthday. They then travelled to England with Morris Troper, the head of the Joint Distribution Committee, and his family on board the Rhakotis. The Joseph family rented a one-room apartment in London. During the Blitz, the intensive bombing campaign on London by Germany, Liesl was sent to Clifton where she attended a Jewish secondary school and boarded with the Whittington. In August 1940, her father was interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien. When the bombing raids ended, Liesl returned to London to live with her mother. In 1940, the family received US visas and departed on the Camaronia. They arrived in the US on September 10 and settled in Philadelphia where Lilly had relatives. Her mother worked as a maid and her father sold candy. In 1945, Josef learned that his sister and one of her two sons had been killed in a concentration camp. The members of Lilly’s family who had remained in Germany, including her mother and two sisters, also perished in the camps. Josef died, age 63 years, in November 1945. Liesl completed school, and in 1947, married Hans Joseph Loeb. They had a son and a daughter. Hans died in 1987. Liesl had a career as a graphic designer. She was a frequent speaker to community groups, dedicating herself to teaching others through her experiences of the Holocaust. Her mother, now Lilly Joseph Kamin, died, age 92 years, in November 1993. Liesl passed on August 25, 2013, age 85 years.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Liesl Joseph Loeb
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Liesl Joseph Loeb donated the Liesl Joseph Loeb papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1991 and 2003. The accession previously numbered 2003.58.1 has been incorporated into this collection.
Scope and Content
The Liesl Joseph Loeb papers consist of correspondence files, emigration and immigration files, MS St. Louis files, photographs, and printed materials documenting the Joseph family’s departure from Germany and voyage on the St. Louis, the Passenger Committee’s work to find refuge for the ship’s passengers, and the Joseph family’s arrival in England and immigration to the United States. Correspondence includes letters and postcard from Josef Josephs to his family while he was interned as an enemy alien as well as with fellow former passengers of the St. Louis, such as Herbert Manasse and Ernst Vendig, and with officials who tried to help passengers aboard the St. Louis, such as Morris C. Troper of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The correspondence describes conditions in the internment camp on the Isle of Man and documents the Josephs efforts to immigrate to the United States, obtain reimbursement for the Cuban landing permits that were denied by the Cuban government, and recovery of belongings shipped to Cuba. This series also includes Josef Joseph’s open letter to Joseph Goebbels as well as an appeal to the German Jewish immigrant community in the United States to establish a fund to aid orphaned and displaced children that Aufbau declined to publish. A handful of the correspondence in this series consists of photocopies or transcriptions from the 1990s. Emigration and immigration files include German documents clearing the Josephs family for emigration and listing the possession they intended to take, correspondence documenting the Josephs’ arrangements for Cuban transit visas and travel to Cuba aboard the St. Louis, messages from the American Consulate General in London regarding the Josephs’ plans to immigrate to the United States, and two records indicating the Josephs’ considered emigrating to the Dominican Republic. MS St. Louis records primarily consist of announcements, reports, and telegrams. The telegrams documenting communications between the Passenger Committee and organizations including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Hamburg‐America Passagierlinie, A.G. (HAPAG), the German‐Jewish Aid Association (Hilfsverein), and Hias‐Ica‐Emigration Association (HICEM), the American and British governments, and the press as the Passenger Committee and Captain Schroeder tried to negotiate a safe haven for the ship’s passengers. The announcements and reports document efforts by the Passenger Committee, Captain Schroeder, and the ship’s crew to keep the passengers informed of developments. This series also includes Cuban immigrant identification cards for the Josephs family, an excerpt from Josef Joseph’s diary describing the journey, and a copy of the ship’s passenger list. Photographs depict the Josephs family, Fritz Buff, Edie Babich, and Ilse, Karl, and Selma Simon aboard the St. Louis. Printed materials include British, German, Swiss, and Dutch newspaper clippings documenting the St. Louis’ return to Europe, a newspaper clipping containing Josef Joseph’s thanks to those who helped the St. Louis passengers find temporary refuge, and an informational brochure for refugees in England.
System of Arrangement
The Liesl Joseph Loeb papers are arranged as five series: I. Correspondence, 1939-1993 (bulk 1939-1945), II. Emigration and immigration, 1938-1940, III. MS St. Louis records, 1939, IV. Photographs, 1939, V. Printed materials, approximately 1939-1940
People
- Liesl J. Loeb
Corporate Bodies
- St. Louis (Ship)
Subjects
- Germany--Emigration and immigration--Government policy--20th century.
- Jewish refugees--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.
- Cuba--Emigration and immigration--Government policy--20th century.
- Jewish refugees--Great Britain.
- Jews--Germany--Rheydt.
- Isle of Man.
Genre
- Document
- Photographs.