Eleanor G. Feitler Family Collection
Scope and Content Note
The Eleanor G. Feitler Family Collection consists of the correspondence and some papers of members of the Emil and Auguste Glauber and Heinrich and Erna Mayer families, especially the descendants of the three Herrmann sisters (Clara, Paula, and Erna) along with the families into which they married. Much of the correspondence has been translated.
Series I holds the collection's correspondence. More than half of the collection is composed of the letters of family members, most prominently letters sent to Emil and Auguste Glauber in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. The correspondence is notable in that it shows the dissemination of the greater family, with portions of the family in the United States, England, Shanghai, Europe, and South America during these decades. Most of these letters relate to family members' attempts to emigrate, both successful and not, with many letters discussing efforts to acquire immigration visas, the necessary paperwork in order to do so, or the purchase of ship's passages. Others center on the relating of family news while the family was separated, such as those of Heinrich Hans Mayer and Erna Mayer, which tell of their lives abroad. Others, like the letters of Clara Schoenmann and Paula Beer, provide news of those left behind in Vienna and Pilsen until their deportations. Only a few folders include letters written by Emil or Auguste Glauber.
The second series of the collection contains the papers of the family. Much of this series consists of copies of documentation related to the Nazi takeover of the family textile business of Heinrich Hans Mayer, Leopold Mayer and Sons. A few other papers are present in this series, including a few documents of Emil Glauber.
Dates
- Creation: 1927-2009
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1938-1945
Creator
- Feitler, Eleanor G. (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in German and English.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers.
Access Information
Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.
Use Restrictions
There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:
Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org
Biographical Note
Jakob and Marie Herrmann of Pilsen (today Plzeň, Czech Republic) had three daughters: Clara, born March 28, 1877; Paula; and Erna (sometimes called Ernestine). All three sisters lived in Vienna, Austria.
Clara, the oldest, married Jacques Schoenmann; they had two children, Hannah and Paul. Hanna married the Viennese optician Eric Oppenheimer, and had two children. Paul Schoenmann married Pipi Kern; they also had two children, George and Helly. Clara and Jacques Schoenmann remained in Vienna after the Anschluss of Austria, where Jacques died in January 1941 of natural causes. Clara was deported to Lodz, Poland, where she died in October 1941.Hannah and Eric Oppenheimer's two children went to England via Kindertransport, where they stayed until their parents could join them. Paul and Pipi Schoenmann went to Wales, where Paul founded a factory.
Jakob and Maria Herrmann's second daughter, Paula, married Joseph Beer, who owned a business manufacturing silk ties and scarves in Vienna. They had two children: Fritz (later Fred) and Alice. After Joseph's early death Paula continued his business. At some point, Paula Beer left Vienna to return to Pilsen to assist her aunt Charlotte, sister of Jakob Herrmann. She returned to Prague and died in the Holocaust. Fritz/ Fred Beer went to England, where he started a tie factory in Macclesfield before being sent to Australia, where he joined the Australian Army. Alice Beer married William Diamant; they had a daughter, Hannah, and lived in Prague. Theyemigrated from Prague to England, where Alice took over her brother's business when he left for Australia.
Erna Herrmann married Heinrich (usually called Hans) Mayer, the son of Elly Malz and Amalie Mayer. Heinrich Mayer ran his family's textile firm, Leopold Mayer and Sons, with his brother Franz until his brother's death in 1937, and his wife Erna worked as the firm's bookkeeper. Sometime in 1940 Erna and Hans Mayer left Vienna for Shanghai, traveling via train to Berlin and Moscow, across Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostock, then via boat to Japan before arriving in Shanghai. Hans Mayer died at some point in the 1940s in Shanghai.
Erna and Heinrich Mayer had three children: Alfred, Auguste ("Gusti") and Kaethe. Alfred Mayer and his grandmother Elly Mayer went to England and in the 1950s, Canada, before Alfred Mayer went to the United States. Auguste Mayer married Emil Glauber in 1928; they had two children, George and Lore (later Eleanor G. Feitler). Auguste Glauber left Vienna with George and Lore for the United States in August/ September 1938 while Emil Glauber waited for his American visa in Antwerp, Belgium. The Glauber family eventually settled in Illinois. - Kaethe Mayer married Rudolph ("Rudi") Weiner. Rudolph Weiner was jailed in spring 1938. After his release they went to Chicago, Illinois, where Rudolph Weiner had connections in the laundry business; they later settled in Oakland, California.
Extent
0.75 Linear Feet
Abstract
The Eleanor G. Feitler Family Collection consists of the correspondence and papers of members of the Emil and Auguste Glauber and Heinrich and Erna Mayer families, especially the descendants of the three Herrmann sisters (Clara, Paula, and Erna) along with the families into which they married.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in two series:
Separated Material
A book, Köferl-Werk : d. polit. Bezirk Tachau (hrsg. 1890) u. Suppl. zur Heimatskunde d. polit. Bezirkes Tachau (hrsg. 1895), was removed to the LBI Library.
Processing Information
During processing of the archival collection, folders were organized into series. Large folders were further subdivided. Correspondence was removed from binders and placed into acid-free folders. Each document of the collection had previously been placed in plastic document sleeves, most of which were removed for preservation purposes. Oversized documents were placed in oversized storage.
Subject
- Glauber, Emil, 1895- (Person)
- Glauber, Auguste (Person)
- Mayer, Heinrich (Person)
- Mayer, Erna, 1884-1975 (Person)
- Schoenmann, Clara, 1877-1941 (Person)
- Glauber family (Family)
- Myers family (Family)
- Weiss family (Family)
- Weiner family (Family)
- Oscar Kohorn & Co. (Organization)
- Leop. Mayer and Sons (Organization)
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of the Eleanor G. Feitler Family Collection 1927-2009 AR 25629
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Dianne Ritchey
- Date
- © 2015
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from EleanorFeitlerFamily.xml
Revision Statements
- November 2015:: dao links added by Emily Andresini.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository
