Biographical/Historical Information

Fred Grubel was born as Fritz Grübel in Leipzig in 1908. In 1930, he earned his doctorate in Law, and he worked in law offices until he was prohibited to do so in 1933. He then took a position as a leader in the Jewish community in Leipzig. After having been interned for five weeks in the Concentration Camp Buchenwald in 1938, Grubel, his wife Lisa née Cohen and their infant son escaped to England in 1939, before making their way to the United States in 1940. Grubel worked in various positions, and he eventually became a highly esteemed and accomplished executive director of the Leo Baeck Institute in 1970, remaining in that position until 1997. Fred Grubel died in New York in 1998.

The author Hermann Kesten was born in Austrian Galicia in 1900 and grew up in Nuremberg. He was widely known for his novels and dramas, and he was one of the principal literary figures of the New Objectivity movement in 1920s Germany. In 1940, Kesten immigrated to the U.S. and then lived as an American citizen in New York, Munich, Switzerland, and Rome. From 1972 to 1976, Kesten served as president of the West German PEN. Hermann Kesten died in Basel, Switzerland in 1996.

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Citation

Hermann Kesten (r.) with Fred Grubel, Leo Baeck Institute, F 3559.