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How Herbert Friedmann became Herbert Freeman

Cover and title page of "Elias Bickermann, Die Makkabäer,1935 (Bücherei des Schocken Verlags ; 47)"
Cover and Inscription page of Herbert Friedmann (Freeman)'s copy of
Elias Bickermann: Die Makkabäer, 1935 (Bücherei des Schocken Verlags ; vol. 47)
LBI NY Library, f box 10.
How Herbert Friedmann became Herbert FreemanHow Herbert Friedmann became Herbert FreemanHow Herbert Friedmann became Herbert FreemanHow Herbert Friedmann became Herbert FreemanHow Herbert Friedmann became Herbert FreemanHow Herbert Friedmann became Herbert FreemanHow Herbert Friedmann became Herbert FreemanHow Herbert Friedmann became Herbert FreemanHow Herbert Friedmann became Herbert FreemanHow Herbert Friedmann became Herbert FreemanHow Herbert Friedmann became Herbert Freeman
Cropped Inscription page : Bickermann, Elias. Die Makkabäer,1935 (Bücherei des Schocken Verlags ; 47)
The inscription reads: „Von seiner Tante Recha als Geschenk. | Herbert Friedmann 1936. Herbert Freeman“.
which translates as: "From his aunt Recha as a present. | Herbert Friedmann 1936. Herbert Freeman"
LBI NY Library, f box 10.
Herbert Freeman: Cobblestones: the Story of my Life. Cranbury, NJ, 2006. Page 8
Frankfurt, 1934: Herbert Friedmann (Freeman), aged nine, as pictured in his memoirs. On this page he also recalls that he and two Jewish classmates were transferred to a school with segregated classes for Jewish and non-Jewish children in October 1935.
Herbert Freeman: Cobblestones: the Story of my Life. Cranbury, NJ, 2006.
LBI NY Archives, Memoir Collection, ME 1577.
A letter from Herbert Freeman to his parents, 1937
A letter from then eleven-year-old Herbert Friedmann (Freeman) in Frankfurt to his parents in the US on April 5, 1937, written while he was waiting for his visa. He shares his dream to become an aviation engineer.
LBI NY Archives, Herbert Freeman Family Collection, AR 25346, Box 1, folder 4, page 4.
Letter by Albert Einstein on behalf of Herbert Freeman(Friedmann), 1937
Albert Einstein intervened repeatedly on behalf of Herbert Friedmann (Freeman), here in a letter from June 25, 1937. Photocopy obtained from his case file at the National Archives by Herbert Freeman in 1987.
LBI NY Archives, Herbert Freeman Family Collection, AR 25346, Box 1, folder 6.
The Schocken Library Spines
The book which Herbert Friedmann (Freeman) received from his aunt Recha as a present and which he carried with him throughout his ordeal was not only a treasured possession but also a remarkable publishing endeavor in its own right: Die Makkabäer (1935) was published as volume 47 of Bücherei des Schocken Verlags. The renowned series was issued by Schocken Verlag during the Nazi era, primarily for Jewish readers. Spanning 92 volumes published between 1933 and 1939, the series offered a curated selection of literary works, primarily by Jewish authors, alongside a few non-Jewish writers. The series became a powerful symbol of intellectual and moral resistance and was integral part of many private libraries of German-Jewish emigrants.

This small inscribed volume from the Schocken Bücherei symbolizes the long struggle of young Herbert Friedmann, born in Frankfurt in 1925, to escape Nazi Germany. The first part of the ink inscription, written in old German script, signed with his name "Herbert Friedmann," shows that it was a gift from his aunt Recha in 1936. The book itself tells the story of the Maccabees, Jewish fighters who established the Hasmonean dynasty in 165 BCE, embodying courage, resilience, and victory.

In 1936, when he received this book, Herbert was staying with relatives while waiting for a visa to emigrate to the United States. His parents and his brother had already left Germany, but his own visa was repeatedly denied because of a false tuberculosis diagnosis. Separated from his family, Herbert remained in Germany as his parents searched frantically for help from abroad. After several failed attempts, Albert Einstein intervened on his behalf, writing to various U.S. authorities. As a result, Herbert was allowed to apply for a visa through Switzerland, where he passed the medical examination.

After more than a year and a half of excruciating uncertainty, Herbert then traveled alone to the United States in March 1938, at the age of twelve, to reunite with his family. He brought this book with him and later signed it in Latin script with his new name, “Herbert Freeman.”

Freeman, who later became a professor of computer engineering, recounts this story in his memoirs Cobblestones: the Story of my Life. His family papers at the Leo Baeck Institute New York include correspondence with his parents during his long wait as well as a large case file he received from the National Archives in 1987, containing the full correspondence between Albert Einstein, the Surgeon General, and the U.S. Secretary of State.

Today, this modest book preserved in the library of the Leo Baeck Institute stands as a powerful witness to a child’s and his family’s ordeal, and to the fragile yet life-saving pathways of rescue that carried Herbert Friedmann - later Herbert Freeman - from persecution to survival.

Bibliography:
The story of Herbert Freeman is also featured in these two articles:

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  • Bibliothek