Factory-printed Star of David badge printed with Jude, acquired by a German Jewish man

Edwin Bergmann (1881-1947) was born in Laupheim, Germany, to Anton (1854-1912) and Helene (Lina, nee Adler, 1861-1928) Bergmann. He had three siblings: Marko (later Marco, 1878-1952), Elsa (later Wallerstein, 1882-1960), and Karl (later known as Charles, 1895-1976). Laupheim was a small town with an assimilated Jewish population. Their family lived next door to Anton’s brother, Josef Bergmann (1850-1922). Anton and his brother were co-owners of a hair dyeing and hairpiece manufacturing business that Josef had founded. Edwin and his siblings grew up close to their seven paternal cousins, and the two families lived in poor and crowded conditions. Edwin attended the Jewish public school until age fourteen, then went to London to gain work experience, foreign language skills, and professional contacts. Edwin returned to Laupheim to work in the family firm, and on September 23, 1910, married Paula Stern (1886-1979). That December, Edwin, Marko, and their cousins, Theodor (1875-1941) and Max (1879-1952), became full partners in the firm. Edwin managed the exports and hairnets, and traveled frequently to conduct business in England and the United States. During this time, Edwin and Paula had two children; Rudolf Julius (1911-1971) and Margarete (known as Gretel, 1914-2017). They purchased a new home, and had multiple servants along with a governess for the children. Edwin had a variety of hobbies, including photography, woodworking, and gardening. The family was not strictly observant, but they did attend synagogue for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. During World War I (1914-1918), Edwin and both his brothers served in the German army. In 1926, Edwin and Paula had a third child, Walter Anthony (1926-2000). After Rudolf finished junior high, he attended a two-year business school in Neuchatel, then apprenticed in Frankfurt, and worked in Berlin for Universal Pictures. Gretel competed in track and field events, and showed promise as an exceptional athlete. She continued to excel in the nearby city of Ulm, until Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Afterward, anti-Jewish decrees were passed that restricted every aspect of Jewish life. Gretel was forced out of her athletic club, and Rudolf lost his job in Berlin. Rudolf began working at the family firm, and in the fall, Gretel went to England for school. In 1934, Walter went to boarding school outside of Ulm. In June, Edwin traveled to England and watched Gretel win the British Championships for high jump. Afterward, under Nazi threats of reprisal against their family, Edwin and Gretel returned to Germany so Gretel could train as a German for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1935, Edwin became Deputy Director of the “Reichs Union of Jewish Veterans – Laupheim,” and Paula became Secretary of the Jewish Cultural Association. However, the authorities continued passing new laws and restrictions against the Jewish population. In September, the Nuremberg Laws of excluded Jews from citizenship and mandated the separation of Jews and non-Jews. In pre-Olympic trials in 1936, Gretel matched the German high jump record, but weeks before the Olympics were to begin, she was removed from the team for “poor performance,” and her record was struck from the books. In the Olympics that summer, her record of fifty-three inches would have won the gold medal. Beginning in 1933, many Jewish businesses in Laupheim were forcefully transferred to non-Jews, a process called “Aryanization”. The Bergmanns were initially able to avoid this fate because their firm was the largest employer and taxpayer in Laupheim, and the Jewish partners were closely linked with the firm’s success. However, members of the Bergmann family began leaving the country, including two of the partners, Marko and Theodor. Edwin’s oldest son, Rudolf, immigrated to the United States in February 1937, and Gretel followed that May. In July, Edwin had his passport seized by the authorities, preventing him from leaving the country. The following year, he attempted to sell the company to some senior employees. Multiple proposals were rejected by Nazi authorities, who saw the sale price as too high for Jewish-owned real estate, and did not care about the company’s other assets. On November 9 and 10, 1938, German officials instigated a violent and destructive pogrom against the Jews, known as Kristallnacht. Edwin and two of his cousins were among the 30,000 Jewish men arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. Edwin was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp, where he was assigned prisoner number 23089. While there, he endured cruel treatment and inhumane conditions. From 5 am to 11 pm, the prisoners were forced to stand outside, enduring freezing weather in inadequate clothing. Edwin was released from Dachau on December 6. After four weeks under the brutal conditions, he was severely malnourished, and weighed only 80 pounds. He checked himself into the Laupheim hospital, but was forced to leave by the Nazi authorities. While Edwin was imprisoned, the firm was put under new management by Laupheim’s Nazi mayor, and renamed. In February 1939, Edwin’s English work permit, where he traveled for business, was set to expire. He requested the return of his passport to renew the permit, which the German authorities obliged. He and Paula took advantage and secretly prepared to leave the country. They picked Walter up from his school, and traveled to Cologne. Although they did not have all of the necessary paperwork, Edwin convinced airport staff to allow them to board a plane for London. Following the German invasion of Poland, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3. German and Austrian citizens living in Britain were classified as enemy aliens, and categorized into three levels of security risk. Edwin was classified as group B, low risk individuals who were not interned, but supervised and subject to restrictions. His sister, Elsa and her family, who also escaped to England, immigrated to the U.S. that December, while Edwin had to wait until June 1940. Edwin, Paula, and Walter were escorted by guards to Liverpool and held in jail until their ship was ready. Fourteen-year-old Walter was separated from his parents and housed with a Yiddish-speaking Jewish family, with whom he was unable to communicate. The family arrived in New York City on July 8. They settled in Queens, and initially stayed with their children. Rudolf, who had Americanized his name to Rudolph, married a fellow refugee from Germany the previous year. In 1938, Gretel, who began going by Margaret, married a doctor she previously met at an athletic training camp in Germany. Edwin began working in the hair goods industry in New York, with help from his brother Marko, who Americanized his name to Marco. Their cousin Max opened his own company across the street, and worked on commissions for Marco’s company. Edwin’s youngest brother, Karl, and his family immigrated to the United States in September 1940, and settled in San Francisco. Walter was drafted into the U.S. Army on December 12, 1944, and returned to Germany as an interpreter. While all of the Bergmann family members in Laupheim escaped and survived the war, most of their extended family in other parts of Europe were killed. Although Germany surrendered in May 1945, business correspondence in Germany was prohibited until January 1, 1947. Edwin worked with an agent to begin the restitution process and assess the status of the factory in Laupheim. Edwin died suddenly that June, before the legal affairs were settled. His widow, Paula, inherited his share of the partnership. In December 1950, Paula accepted Marko’s offer to buy out the shares of the other partners. Legal battles with those in Germany who had seized control of the company ensued for years; the verdict, which included a cash settlement and return of the company to the family, was finalized in January 1953, after all four of the original partners had died.

The Star of David badge was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2014 by Margaret Lambert, the daughter of Edwin Bergmann.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Margaret Lambert

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.