Hertha Wolff Hellmann papers
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Hertha Wolff Hellmann
Biographical History
Hertha Wolff Hellmann (1898-1983) was born in Berlin to Siegmund Max Knapp and Hedwig Rothe Knapp. She fled to Shanghai with her daughter, Vera, in 1939, but her husband, Georg Wolff (1894-circa 1942), was too ill to join them. He was deported to Trawniki, Poland, in 1942 and perished. Vera died in Shanghai in 1944 of blood poisoning from an infected inoculation needle. Hertha immigrated to the United States in 1947 and married Arthur Hellmann.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Gerald Hameroff donated the Hertha Wolff Hellmann papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in two installments in 1994. The accession previously cataloged as 1995.A.0184 has been incorporated into this collection.
Scope and Content
The Hertha Wolff Hellmann papers consist of biographical materials, photographic materials, a letter, and lyrics to “Das Ladenmädel” documenting Hertha Wolff’s family in Berlin, Hertha’s escape to Shanghai with her daughter Vera, her husband Georg Wolff’s deportation to Trawniki, Vera’s death in Shanghai, and Hertha’s immigration to the United States. Biographical materials include identification papers; birth, marriage, and vaccination certificates; emigration and immigration paperwork; and a death announcement documenting Hertha and Vera Wolff’s lives in Berlin, their travel to Shanghai and Vera’s death there, and Hertha’s immigration to the United States. This series also includes an American Joint Distribution Committee notification about Georg Wolff’s deportation to Trawniki. Photographic materials include a photograph album containing photographs of Vera Wolff from the age of seven months to fifteen years, some including her mother, two photographs of Shirley Temple, one photograph of Deanna Durbin, and a list of Vera’s childhood illnesses; loose photographs of Vera and Hertha from the album; and loose photographs of two groups of children, two unidentified men, Vera’s grave, and an unidentified woman with a girl. The collection also contains a single letter from Otto Singer to Hertha Wolff referencing a $200 check for an unspecified purpose as well as lyrics to Rudolf Nelson’s “Das Ladenmädel.”
System of Arrangement
The Hertha Wolff Hellmann papers are arranged as four series: I. Biographical materials, 1899-1952, II. Letter, 1948, III. Lyrics to "Das Ladenmädel," approximately 1904, IV. Photographic materials, approximately 1927-1947
People
- Wolff, Vera, 1927-1944.
Subjects
- Jewish children in the Holocaust--China--Shanghai.
- Jewish refugees--China--Shanghai.
- Jews--Germany--Berlin.
- Berlin (Germany)
- Shanghai (China)
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document