Loewy family papers

Paul Loewy (born Alfred Paul Loewy, 1905-1946) was born in Berlin, Germany to Hermann and Else (born Sara, née Lasker) Loewy. He had three siblings: Walter, Betty, and James. Hermann owned a factory in Berlin. In 1931, Paul married Margarete Gabriel in Berlin. They had two children, Vera (1931-) and Hans (1934-). During the war, Paul avoided deportation to a concentration camp with help from his wife, but was forced to do slave labor for a chemical factory and the Deutsche Reichsbahn. Paul died in Berlin in 1946. Vera immigrated to the United States in 1953, and Hans and Margarete immigrated in 1954. They all settled in the Washington, D.C. area. Paul’s brother James immigrated to Palestine in the 1930s. Walter fled Germany for Shanghai, China. His sister Betty married Alfred Kohn, and they had one daughter, Eva. They all perished at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Paul’s maternal aunt and uncle, Max (1881-) and Hedwig (née Grünewald, 1877-) Lasker tried to immigrate to Uruguay but were unsuccessful and were deported to Auschwitz in 1942. The Lasker’s daughter-in-law Alice (1908-) and her husband Friedrich Abt (known as Fritz, 1899-), a World War I veteran, along with Alice’s former husband Alfred Marcus (1895-) and her son Ralph Marcus (1928-) were also all deported to Auschwitz where they perished. Margarete (born Anna Margarete Gabriel, 1903-1996), who was not Jewish, was the daughter of Helene (1879-1961) and Adolf Gabriel. She had one sister, Johanna (1907-1941) who was sent to the state mental hospital center in Bernberg, Germany during the war. She perished in the hospital and was likely killed in the euthanasia center for having epilepsy. The collection primarily documents the wartime experiences of the Paul and Margarete Loewy, their children Hans and Vera, and their extended family in Berlin, Germany. The biographical material includes birth and marriage certificates; World War I veteran documents of Friedrich Abt; passports and other identification documents; Paul Loewy’s wartime workbook (arbeitbuch); and Jüdische Kultusvereinigung documents. There are also papers documenting Max and Hedwig Lasker’s attempt to emigrate from Berlin to Uruguay. The correspondence includes postcards written from family and friends imprisoned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp, and a copy of a letter informing Helene Gabriel that her daughter Johanna died at the state mental hospital and euthanasia center in Bernburg, Germany. The photographs primarily depict pre-war and wartime family lives in Berlin. Also included are several post-war photographs as well as depictions of Hermann Loewy’s factory in Berlin.