Neue Archivsammlungen
Pachner Wolff Family Collection
Series I focuses on correspondence, photographs, and personal documents from members of the Frenkel family. Series II focuses on correspondence, photographs, and personal documents from members of the Wolff family. Lastly, series III focuses on correspondence, photographs, and personal documents from members of the Pachner family.
The lawyer and insurance broker Charles Wolff Pachner was born was born on December 6, 1916, in New York, NY to Gustav “Gus” Pachner and Marcelle Pachner née Wolff, whose families had come from Gnesen and Posen, Germany. Marcelle was born in Paris in 1891; when her father died a few days later, her mother returned to the United States, rejoining other Wolff family members here.
Charles married Janice Pachner née Frenkel, who was born on December 1, 1921, in New York, NY, the daughter of Leo Samuel Frenkel and Helen Rose Frenkel, née Wolff.
In 1951, Charles Pachner joined the insurance agency Frenkel & Co. that had been established by the Frenkel family. He served as a chairman and president of the company until his retirement in 1995, serving as the chairman emeritus of Frenkel & Co. until 2004. He was also a board member of Westchester Jewish Community Services and the Musician’s Foundation. Charles Pachner passed away in White Plains, NY in 2005.
Susan Mannheim Collection
This collection documents the family history of Susan Mannheim (born Suselotte Herrmann), who spent her childhood in Heilbronn, Germany before emigrating to New York City with her family in 1938. The collection chronicles Susan’s family history through ancestral documents, family photographs, and through Susan’s creative and memoir writings.
Susan Mannheim was born Suselotte Herrmann on January 18, 1927, to Ruth and Siegfried Herrmann. Ruth née Beermann was the daughter of Rabbi Max Beermann (1873-1935). The family escaped Nazi Germany and moved to New York City in 1938, settling in Washington Heights, and Susan graduated from George Washington High School and Hunter College. - As a young woman, Susan assisted postwar refugees and participated in progressive causes, including the Civil Rights Movement; as a schoolteacher she belonged to New York’s chapter of the United Federation of Teachers. She married Jack Mannheim in 1949 and divorced in the 1970s; the couple raised four children. Susan Mannheim died in Rockville, Maryland on January 23, 2017.
Kurt and Grete Goldsmith Family Collection
Photographs, personal documents, correspondence and other archival materials pertaining to the family of the photographer Kurt Goldsmith (Goldschmidt) and his wife Grete née Lendt.
Kurt Goldsmith (Goldschmidt) was born in Stolzenau, Germany on January 9th, 1901 to Leo and Dina Goldschmidt, née Levy. He was the oldest of five siblings: Grete (married Rosenstein and Weinberg), Anni (married Meth and Josephs), Max, and Lore (married Streat). Leo and Dina operated a small dry-goods shop in Stolzenau, and later in Hohenbostel. Dina Goldschmidt died in 1919, and in 1921 Leo Goldschmidt married Irma (Jenny) Appel. Irma was a nurse during World War I and served on the Western Front. She was considered a beloved stepmother to the children and remained an integral part of the family even after Leo’s death in 1936.
In 1931, Kurt married Margarete (Grete) Lendt, born on October 1st, 1904. Her parents Georg and Mathilde, née Dahlberg, owned a large department store in Göppingen, which they were forced to sell after financial and material damages sustained during the Kristallnacht in 1938. During the night of November 9th to 10th, 1938, the Lendt department store was attacked by SA-Obersturmbannführer Otto Schraag, who tore his way through the store and into the private living quarters of the family. Grete, who by then was living with Kurt in Cologne, was visiting her parents that day and witnessed these horrible events take place. Grete also had a sister, Gertud (Trude) Rohrbacher, with whom she was very close and frequently corresponded. Mathilde passed away in 1940 from cancer and Georg Lendt was murdered in Mauthausen concentration camp on August 24, 1942.
Kurt and Grete fled Germany in 1939 with their six-year-old son, Hans Stefan (later known as Steven James). They first fled to England, and after several months they were able to continue their journey to the United States. Kurt and his family finally settled in New York City, specifically in the Washington Heights neighborhood. Kurt opened a successful photography studio in their apartment, while Grete worked as a cleaner, and later in sales at the Gimbels department store. They were members of Congregation Beth Hillel, and Kurt was active with the Leo Baeck Lodge of B'nai Brith. After Grete’s death in 1972, Kurt married Thea Berliner, née Hirschfeld. Kurt died on August 12th, 1994.
Steven James grew up in Washington Heights and attended local public schools. He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and then a law degree from Columbia University. In 1965, he married Judith Svirsky and soon after moved to White Plains, NY. Steven practiced as a labor lawyer, and later as a labor arbitrator. He died on June 28, 2016 in Mount Vernon, NY.
Max Hirschberg Research Collection
This collection documents the research activities of historian and lawyer Douglas G. Morris, who wrote a dissertation and monograph on the life and career of criminal defense and anti-Nazi lawyer Max Hirschberg (1883-1964). Hirschberg practiced law mostly in Munich throughout the 1920s and 1930s, during the Weimar and Nazi eras, and fought legal battles on behalf of anti-Nazi organizations and persons.
Max Hirschberg was born on November 13, 1883, in Munich. He studied law in Munich, Berlin, and Leipzig before practicing law in Munich from 1911 to 1934. Throughout the Weimar and Nazi eras of the 1920s and 1930s, Hirschberg defended anti-fascist individuals and organizations. He famously and successfully represented Felix Fechenbach (1894-1933), a political secretary accused of treason and sentenced to eleven years in prison before being pardoned in 1924. In 1934, Hirschberg fled to Milan, Italy with his wife Bessie and son Erich, and then emigrated to New York with his family in March 1939. After World War II, Hirschberg continued practicing law by representing refugees and war victims in restitution cases. Max Hirschberg died in New York City on June 21, 1964, at age 80.
Hofsas Family Collection
This collection contains materials pertaining primarily to Ida and Ferdinand Hofsas; Hans and Etta Hofsas; and Miriam R. Ephraim, documenting the immigration story of Ida and her son Hans to the United States; Hans’s experience in the U.S. Army; and the work and life of Miriam R. Ephraim dedicated to community service and Jewish organizations. Also included are books, objects, travel and immigration documents, records of employment, photographs, and ephemera such as postcards and menus. Born digital materials include photographs of the Hofsas family, as well as photographs of artwork by Ludwig (Louis) Hofsas.
Ida Homburger was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1878. As a widow after her late husband, David Kaufmann, she married the businessman Ferdinand Hofsäss (Hofsas; 1886-1914) in 1912. - Ida’s son Hans Hofsas was born in Karlsruhe in 1904. In 1938, Ida and Hans left Karlsruhe for France and traveled to Santiago de Cuba in March of 1939, where they were granted American immigration visas. They settled in San Francisco, CA, and became U.S. citizens in 1945.
Hans Hofsas served in the U.S. Army, working in the Marine Repair Shop at Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA. He married Etta Ephraim in 1953. In San Francisco, Hans was active in B’nai B’rith, serving in chairman positions, and later as treasurer, in lodges and committees.
Ida died in 1951; Hans died in 1986; and Etta died in 1999, all in San Francisco.
Hans’s sister-in-law Miriam R. Ephraim (the sister of Hans’s wife Etta) was born in Manchester, England, in 1899. She moved to the U.S. as a child and studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary. In 1927, she lived in Palestine, where she befriended Henrietta Szold, the founder of the Women's Zionist Organization of America. Miriam worked as a non-governmental representative to the U.S. mission at the United Nations. Throughout her life, she was active at the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service (president), in addition to serving as the director of the Program Section of the National Jewish Welfare Board’s Jewish Community Center Division. In her final years, she was the Secretary General of the International Conference of Jewish Communal Service. She also served as the director of activities at the Pittsburgh Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association and as director of extension activities at the Central Jewish Institute in New York.