About Partners Education Contributors

The Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin presents the year 1938 through the eyes of Jews, whose personal documents detail their experiences and the hardships they suffered as well as the growing tensions in Europe and diminishing hope for Jews in Germany and Austria.

Curated by Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Website and exhibition design by C&G Partners

1

SUNDAY

Compass Travel Bureau

Emigrating is not as easy as it may seem

“Would you like to have your relatives here? Do you need help surmounting the difficulties?”

New York

In an ad in the Aufbau aimed at German immigrants, the Compass Travel Bureau in New York offered “expert advice in all matters related to immigration and the handling of all the formalities of traveling.” The reference to “formalities” elides the excruciating bureaucratic hurdles facing prospective emigrants. Jews desperate to leave Germany first had to obtain quota numbers and a plethora of documents from various German authorities and to contend with the slow postal service as they sought sponsors in America.

TAGS: advertisement, affidavits, bureaucracy, displacement, emigration, immigration, immigration procedures, Journalism, May 1, New York, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“Announcement”, Aufbau, Vol. 5, no. 6, p. 8.

5

TUESDAY

One man can only do so much

An Austrian in Buffalo overwhelmed by calls for aid

“Yesterday, within a single day, I received a whopping 11 requests for immigration affidavits, among them requests from mutual friends.”

Buffalo, New York/Vienna

Thanks to a Rockefeller fellowship awarded to him in 1933, the distinguished Viennese economist Fritz Machlup had left Austria years before the “Anschluss.” In 1935, he was appointed Professor of Economics at the University of Buffalo. As was to be expected, after the Nazis established their hold in Austria, friends and colleagues pinned their hopes on him as a guarantor. In this April 5 missive to his friend Alfred Schütz, he expresses concern that his letters of support might lose credibility because he had written so many, but nevertheless includes a note in English offering to assist Schütz in establishing himself in the US.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, April 5, Buffalo NY, emigration, immigration procedures, letter, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, transnational networks, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Alfred Schutz Collection, AR 25500

Original:

Box 1, folder 17

8

TUESDAY

Family bonds

An Affidavit from uncle Charles

“As soon as I get all this information from you I will prepare the necessary affidavits and will also send the information to Dr. Pollak, who will also send his affidavits so that you and your family can come here.”

Newark, New Jersey/Baden

Charles Manshel, a wealthy businessman and himself a native of Austria, promises his cousin in Baden near Vienna to prepare affidavits for her and her family once he has all the required personal information. The letter shows Manshel’s sincere efforts to not only pave the way to immigration for his relatives but also do something for the professional integration of his niece’s husband, Dr. Eduard Ehrlich. Manshel was no stranger to hardship himself, having provided for his family since his father’s premature death when he was 16 years old.

TAGS: affidavits, Baden, document, emigration, family, immigration procedures, letter, March 8, Newark NJ, transnational networks

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

George and Paul Ehrlich Collection, AR 11418

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Source available in English

11

FRIDAY

Sell the jewelry

Brothers in exile worry about their parents

“By the way, do you happen to have mom's jewelry with you? Because mom had asked me if you told me, because I advised them to sell it, so that they would have means to live.”

Chelles/New York

In February 1938, two brothers living in two different continents, Joszi Josefsberg in Europe (Chelles, France) and Arthur Josefsberg (New York) discuss in their correspondence how best to proceed to obtain affidavits to rescue their parents, who are still in Germany. But not only the fact that their parents’ emigration has not yet been secured worries Joszi—he is also concerned about their material survival. Such concerns were common among Jews who had left behind parents, siblings, and often spouses. Nazi efforts to force Jews out of numerous professions had made it harder and harder for those remaining in Germany to earn a living.

Several months after the 1938Projekt was completed, LBI learned that the letter was misdated while transcribed. Although it was written later than February 1938, LBI decided to keep it in the project under the same date because of the important content.

TAGS: affidavits, Chelles, economic persecution, emigration, family, family separation, February 11, immigration procedures, impoverishment, letter, New York, persecution of Jewish professionals

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Arthur Josefsberg Correspondence, AR 25590

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Source available in English

Website and exhibition design by C&G Partners

The following organizations have offered their materials for inclusion in the 1938 Projekt:

The following organizations have offered their materials for inclusion in the 1938 Projekt: