Ida and Nathan Hess Family Collection

This collection contains materials related to Hildegard Hess and to the Hess family. Many of the German documents have English translations. A highlight of the collection is correspondence between Hildegard, Arnulf, and Louis Hess and their parents, Ida and Nathan Hess, during the early years of World War Two. Almost all of these letters have translations. Among other correspondence in this collection are letters from Hildegard Hess's half-sister by her father, Rosalie Bogner née Hubner. Hubner made contact with the Hesses after the war.

Official documents from Hildegard Hess's life include her German birth certificate, as well as residence permits, medical documents, and letters of reference from employers in Germany. From 1939 to 1947, Hess was in Staines, England, and documents from that time period include official correspondence, and identification and registration cards. More personal documents include a handwritten cookbook of Hess's, and programs from piano recitals that Hildegard participated in during the 1920s in Berlin.

Material by and about individual Hess family members include a four-part epistolary narrative of the 1940 journey of Arnulf Hess and his family to Bolivia, via Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Costa Rica. An English translation is included. Materials concerning Louis (Ludwig) Hess, Hildegard Hess's other brother, include a short 1931 Fox Movietone script, an emigration document, and an inquiry from 1989 about Louis from a researcher into film history. See also the ca. 1924 film of Louis boxing, which was removed to the LBI AV collection. The Nathan Hess items include a bound collection of Der Freie Angler magazines containing his fishing columns; short stories (with English translations); and a post-war notice to Hildegard of his deportation to Theresienstadt. A restitution decision concerning Nathan Hess's Dresdner Bank account is also found in this collection.

Materials about other Hess family members include residence documents, eulogies, and clippings of death notices of 19th century ancestors. Genealogical materials include correspondence and Hess family genealogical tables.

Photographs in the collection show primarily Hess family members, from card-mounted portraits dating back to the 1860s to modern color photographs of Hildegard Hess, her siblings, and her nieces.