Abstract
Traditionally, an archive of family letters provides primary source materials for historians. The family archive described in this article does provide detailed insight into the suffering of several Jews in Germany and France before and during World War II. It serves as a memorial to several individuals who were murdered by the Nazis. It is also a moving testimony of the cost of war. As such, it can be seen as contributing to the wider historical record of the Holocaust. But in addition, this family archive also opened an entire series of new relationships with previously unknown blood relatives scattered across the globe, with an artist drawing the archive into a creative remembrance project, and also with individuals interested in the history of their community in Germany, which was my father’s birthplace. This family archive demonstrates values of archives parallel to their historical significance. It provides a meaningful illustration for how they can, in an unanticipated and unpredictable fashion, serve as a device for forging contemporary and ongoing familial, interpersonal, and social relationships. Ultimately, this archive of family letters, created in the midst of pain and anguish and death, has laid a new foundation of commemoration and remembrance.
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Notes
The digital archive is located at: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rosenberg
Observation of Michael André, translator of the letters.
Precise information on the motive of this deportation has not been found. There only exists the suspicion that it could have involved setting into motion the Madagascar Plan, an initiative of Adolf Eichmann designed to transport the entire Jewish population of Europe to the island of that name. If this were the case, this deportation would be the only known attempt to carry this plan forward. The protests of the French government avoided subsequent actions in this direction. See: Hevesi 1941. See also “Gurs internment camp” Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Gurs. Accessed 1 Dec 2010.
Julius was evidently in business with his father in the small family store. Employment outside by this time was denied to Jews.
This refers to Kristallnacht, the night when the synagogues of Germany were burned to the ground.
Herr Eisemann was the cantor and religious leader of the Breisach Jewish community. There is evidence that he was tortured by the Nazis and then committed suicide.
A Hebrew word meaning “prayer book”.
A nearby small town, Efringen-Kirchen.
Theresienstadt was originally designed to house privileged Jews from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. It was opened to the Red Cross to show how humane the camps were. Many educated Jews were inmates of Theresienstadt, and the camp was publicized by the Nazis for its rich cultural life-this was simply a masque to conceal the horror of the place. See Troller (2004). See also “Theresienstadt concentration camp.” Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt. Accessed 1 Dec 2010.
Rene is Rita’s half brother.
“The Gurs Zyklus.” Available at: http://livelyarts.stanford.edu/event.php?code=TRIM. Accessed 1 Dec 2010.
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Acknowledgments
The archive of letters would have remained a mystery were it not for the efforts of several people to transcribe and translate the letters and make them universally available. Michael G. Andre, a doctoral candidate in German at the University of Michigan organized and translated the letters. In Germany, Daniel and Heidi Meynen and Sibylle Hoschele transcribed the letters into high German, and Christiane Walesch-Schneller facilitated the process and organized the research about my family. The entire archive will be housed in the Special Collections of the University of Michigan Library. This article benefited from the extensive editing of David A. Wallace, especially because the article was so emotionally difficult to write.
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Rosenberg, V. The power of a family archive. Arch Sci 11, 77–93 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-010-9135-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-010-9135-9