Finding Aid (English)
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https://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection RG-10.255 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives Accession 2003.285, RG-10.255 Title: Nussbaum-Koch Family Collection, 1897-1972. Extent: 1 box (ca. 2,000 documents, ca. 100 photographs) Provenance: Milton Koch donated his family's collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on April 11, 2003. Restrictions on access: No restrictions on access. Restrictions on use: No restrictions on use. Language: English, German, Spanish, with Aramaic, French, Luxembourg, Portuguese, and Yiddish. Biographical note: Milton Koch was born in Havana, Cuba on December 8, 1944 to Martha (a.k.a. Marthe, Marguerite, Margareta, Margaretha) Miriam Nussbaum Koch, who was born in Luxembourg on October 12, 1907 and Max (a.k.a. Mozes, Mojzesz, Moyse, Moses) Koch, who was born on June 8, 1911 in Potok Złoty, Poland. Max Koch’s two siblings Carl (Charles) and Miriam immigrated to Palestine with their mother in the late 1930s. There Miriam married Oscar Serebrenik, brother of the well known Rabbi Robert Serebrenik, Chief Rabbi of Luxembourg. Miriam Koch Serebrenik found out that her brother Max Koch had been sent to Dachau where he appeared to have remained for six months. Through her connections (via Rabbi Serebrenik) she managed to get him out on the condition that he leave Germany. Her husband (or perhaps his sister Erna Russo) arranged to have an affidavit signed attesting to the fact that he would be provided for in Luxembourg. He immigrated to Luxembourg arriving there on April 27, 1939. While in Luxembourg, Max Koch met Martha Nussbaum. Martha and Max were married on September 17, 1940 and immigrated to Havana, Cuba on October 7, 1940. Martha Nussbaum came from a large well-known Jewish Luxembourg family. Her parents were Gustav (a.k.a. Gustaw, Gustave, Getzel) Nussbaum and Helene (a.k.a. Helena, Heleine) Kleinberg Nussbaum, who owned and ran the clothing business “Palais de l’Habillement”. Martha and her twin sister Madeline were born on October 12, 1907 in Differdingen, Luxembourg. After Gustav Nussbaum’s death, the clothing business was primarily run by Albert (Abraham) Nussbaum, one of the twins’ brothers, born on April 2, 1898 in Monneren, Luxembourg. René Nussbaum, the other brother, born on October 7, 1901 in Monneren, Luxembourg, was active in sports in his younger years and according to the Donor took part in the Olympics as a member of the national soccer team of Luxembourg. RG-10.255 Nussbaum-Koch Family Collection, 1897-1972. 1 Acc. 2003.285 https://collections.ushmm.org https://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection RG-10.255 When the German Army invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg on May 10, 1940, nearly 1000 Jews fled Luxembourg into France and Belgium, many ultimately finding refuge in Spain and Portugal and then emigration to the West. Albert Nussbaum who was prominent in social work, as treasurer of the Central Jewish Welfare Organization in Luxembourg from 1929 and as leader in aiding refugees from Germany and Austria from 1933, was elected member of the official representation of Luxembourg Jewry, the Consistoire Israelite of Luxembourg, becoming its president after the invasion. He then devoted all his time to the task of protecting and saving Jews. In the fall of 1940, Albert Nussbaum, as a representative of the Consistoire went to Lisbon, Portugal to organize emigration in cooperation with the American Joint Distribution Committee, HICEM, and the Portuguese Refugee Committee. He was then appointed Attaché to the Justice Ministry of Luxembourg with the title of Commissaire à L’Emigration, which enabled him to contact foreign diplomats in Lisbon concerning emigration possibilities. He was appointed director of the newly created Transmigration Office in Lisbon by the JOINT on May 15, 1941 and remained there overseeing the issuance of visas and related matters for his fellow Luxembourgers until he left Lisbon in January 1942 for the Dominican Republic, continuing to the United States on May 10, 1942. During that time he helped thousands of refugees to emigrate to North and South America as well as Palestine. Martha and Max Koch, Helene Nussbaum and Albert Nussbaum all left Portugal on board the merchant ship “Nyassa”, which left Portugal for South America on January 28, 1942. All of the siblings (Martha Nussbaum with her husband Max Koch, Madeleine Nussbaum with her husband Fritz Fränkel (a.k.a. Fred A. Fraenkel), Esther-Jeanne Nussbaum with her husband Joseph Nussbaum, René Nussbaum and Albert Nussbaum) and their mother Helene Kleinberg Nussbaum emigrated from Luxembourg and spent some time in Havana, Cuba or the Dominican Republic until they obtained entrance visas to the United States. In 1946 Albert Nussbaum returned to Luxembourg and photographed the family’s business, which had been destroyed by the Nazis and left in total disarray since the early 1940s. (Information obtained from interview with donor and documents from the collection). Additional information about Nussbaum family prepared by Paul Dostert (Luxembourg, 17 July 2006) is located in the donor file. Historical note: Before the war, more than 3,500 Jews lived in Luxembourg, a majority of whom were refugees. After the German army invaded the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg on May 10, 1940, the country was placed under a military administration. The Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, her family, and four of her five cabinet ministers crossed into France during the night of May 9, 1940. In June 1940, the Luxembourg Government left Paris for Lisbon, Portugal. In the summer of 1940 a German civil administration was established in Luxembourg under the leadership of Gustav Simon, head [Gauleiter] of the neighboring German district of Coblenz - Trier. On August 14, the German authority declared the Luxembourg Constitution void, and references to the “Grand-Duchy” or “State of Luxembourg” were prohibited. In September 1940, the administration put the Nuremberg Laws into effect and the confiscation of Jewish property began. RG-10.255 Nussbaum-Koch Family Collection, 1897-1972. 2 Acc. 2003.285 https://collections.ushmm.org https://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection RG-10.255 In November the Grand Duchess, Premier Dupong, and Justice Minister Victor Bodson formed a government in exile headquartered in Montreal. Foreign Minister Joseph Bech and Labor & Social Welfare Minister Peter Krier represented the government in exile in London. Jewish emigration from Luxembourg was encouraged until the spring of 1941, and many Jews found refuge in France or Portugal. Although Portugal did not attract Jewish emigrants in the 1930s, its neutrality and the grant of transit visa to many refugees convinced a considerable number of Jews to pass through Portugal as they headed for countries overseas. The “Portuguese Committee for the Assistance of Jewish Refugees in Portugal” (COMASSIS), which was funded by the JOINT and led by Augusto Esaguy, Elias Baruel, Honorary Chairmen Moses Amzalak and Adolfo Benarus, operated a Jewish Hospital and provided food, clothing and medical care to the refugees on a daily basis. A number of American and French Jewish organizations helped the refugees, once in Lisbon, to reach the United States and South America. At the Evian Conference the Dominican Republic was the only country that offered to accept Jewish refugees. The DORSA (Dominican Republic Settlement Association) was formed with the assistance of the JOINT and helped settle Jews in Sosua, on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. About 700 European Jews reached the settlement where they were assigned land and cattle. Other refugees settled in the capital Santo Domingo. In 1943 the number of Jews in the Republic peaked at 1000. From August 8, 1940 until October 15, 1941, when the Germans forbade emigration, more than 2,500 Jews left Luxembourg. Of the 3,500 Jews living in Luxembourg before the war, 1,555 survived the Holocaust by fleeing, hiding, or surviving the camps. 1,945 perished in the Holocaust. Scope and content note: Consists of correspondence, passports, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other documentation of the Nussbaum and Koch families of Luxembourg. Includes papers and photographs related to Albert Nussbaum, who worked for the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Lisbon before emigrating to the Dominican Republic, and to Gustav Nussbaum, Helene Kleinberg Nussbaum, Marguerite (Martha) Koch, and Rene Nussbaum. Organization and arrangement: The collection is arranged into four series: 10.255*01: Documents relating to Gustav Nussbaum and Helene Kleinberg Nussbaum, 1897-1950 10.255*02: Documents relating to Albert Nussbaum, 1903-1972 10.255*03: Documents relating to Max Koch and Martha Nussbaum Koch, 1929-1967 10.255*04: Documents relating to René Nussbaum, 1920-1941 10.255*05: Nussbaum Family Correspondence, 1922-1929 10.255*06: Hand drawn dress catalog from the clothing business of the Nussbaum family in Luxembourg, before 1940 10.255*07: Miscellaneous 10.255*08: Photographs Inventory: RG-10.255*01 Folder 1 Documents relating to Gustav Nussbaum and Helene Kleinberg Nussbaum, 1897-1950 RG-10.255 Nussbaum-Koch Family Collection, 1897-1972. 3 Acc. 2003.285 https://collections.ushmm.org https://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection RG-10.255 1. Certificate of good behavior from the Police Inspector of the Karlsruhe district office for Gustav Nussbaum, January 8, 1897. In German. 2. Marriage contract [Ketuba] for Gustav Nussbaum and Helene Kleenberg. January 1897 [5657]. In Aramaic. 3. Copy (upside down) of birth certificate of Helene Kleinberg, October 9, 1903. In German and French. 4. Unofficial translation of # 1. In English. 5. Unofficial translation of # 1. In English. 6. Certificate of good behavior from the Mayor of Monneren, Luxembourg for Gustav Nussbaum and his family, September 15, 1907.