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Hans Froehlich Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 25276

Scope and Content Note

This collection documents the life and work of Hans Froehlich, lawyer and social worker. It contains material on several family members including his wife, Margarete Froehlich, his parents, Bernhard and Rosa Fröhlich, and his parents-in-law, Julius and Sophie Jacoby. The collection holds official documents, personal and professional correspondence, manuscripts and typescripts, notes, printed material, and photographs.

Biographical information on Hans Froehlich is located in several areas of the collection. Series I: Personal and Family Papers holds official and personal papers such as certificates and handwritten family histories (3/1) documenting major events in his life, such as marriages, naturalization, and death. Official biographical information can also be extracted from Hans Froehlich's job application correspondence, located in Series IV: Professional, Subseries 1: Correspondence. Naturally, also his private correspondence contained in Series II, Subseries: 1 features biographical information as does material in Series III: Writings, Subseries 1: Personal: Interesting in this respect is a letter (II.1: 2/19) to his dead sister in which he offers a very personal recapitulation of their childhood and adolescence in Germany, including precise dates and locations.

Hans Froehlich's life was, as a short glance at his biographical details reveals, greatly shaken and irrevocably changed by the experiences of persecution, dispossession, and helplessness in the face of the death of loved ones under the Nazi rule. A legacy and constant reminder of this past is the fight for restitution, which can be clearly identified as another central subject in the collection. Most correspondence and documents concerned with Hans Froehlich's or other family members' restitution cases are located in Series VI: Restitution; however, some material relating to restitution in connection with the estate of Lucie Oppenheimer can also be found in Series VII: Finances.

Similar to the biographical information, his interest in social work pervades the entire collection. Most of the material arranged in Series IV: Professional attests to his determination to take action in the field of social work, which he did either directly by working for relief organizations or indirectly by teaching social work students. Accordingly, the greatest part of Series V: Printed Material reflects his commitment as it includes mostly brochures, journals, and clippings on social work subjects. In addition to that, Series III: Writing, Subseries 2: Professional holds his own outlook on social problems and practices in the form of articles and essays, published and unpublished alike.

Series VIII: Addenda includes additional material added to the collection in May 2008. Much of the addenda is comprised of personal correspondence. Other papers include daily calendars, photographs, some writings, official papers, clippings, and publications. The correspondence of Series VIII features many of the same correspondents found in Hans Froehlich's correspondence of Series II. Subseries 2 holds Hans Froehlich's daily calendars, documenting the events of his daily life for more than sixty years. The subsequent three subseries contain material gathered together by time period, holding papers relating to his life in Germany, including his university education and military service in World War I; his immigration experience; and some papers pertaining to his professional life in the United States.

Dates

  • Creation: 1842-1990
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1914-1978

Creator

Language of Materials

The collection is in German and English, including some French and Italian.

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

Dr. Hans David Froehlich was born on August 31, 1895 in Beuthen, Oberschlesien (Bytom, Poland) to the pharmacist Bernhard and his wife Rosa Fröhlich. In 1899, the family moved to Munich where Hans went to Gymnasium, graduating in 1914. After serving in WWI from 1914 until 1918, he studied law in Munich and acquired his doctoral degree at the University in Erlangen in 1925. On August 11, 1921 he married Margarete Jacoby, usually referred to as Grete. After several years of practicing law in Munich, Hans Froehlich and his wife left Nazi Germany for Italy in 1936 and from there immigrated to the United States in 1939. Having settled in New York City, he acquired a Master in Social Work and taught at Hunter College. During the Nazi rule, his parents committed suicide by poison, while his sister Gertrud, with the help of Josef Sebastian Cammerer, went into hiding in Tutzing near Munich where she died on February 11, 1942.

His wife faced emotional problems and died on July 19, 1977. Hans Froehlich suffered from diabetes, which increasingly disabled him. He moved to the Margaret Tietz Nursing Home, where he died in 1980. He is buried in Ridgewood, Queens.

Extent

16 Linear Feet

Abstract

This collection contains the papers of Hans Froehlich, a lawyer and later social worker. A dominant topic throughout the collection is the experience of persecution and the death of loved ones, and, connected with that, the lifelong struggle for restitution and compensation. At the same time, his professional life as a social worker as well as his personal interests and hobbies are reflected in the correspondence, printed material and personal writing found in the collection.

Arrangement

The collection is divided into seven series in the following manner:

Microfilm

The collection is on forty-nine reels of microfilm (MF 790):

  1. Reel 1: 1/1 - 1/26
  2. Reel 2: 1/27 - 1/49
  3. Reel 3: 1/50 - 1/63
  4. Reel 4: 2/1 - 2/38
  5. Reel 5: 2/39 - 2/53
  6. Reel 6: 2/54 - 2/67
  7. Reel 7: 2/68 - 2/70
  8. Reel 8: 3/1 - 3/19
  9. Reel 9: 3/20 - 3/36
  10. Reel 10: 3/37 - 3/63
  11. Reel 11: 4/1 - 4/26
  12. Reel 12: 4/27 - 4/37
  13. Reel 13: 4/38 - 4/62
  14. Reel 14: 4/63 - 4/71
  15. Reel 14A: 5/1 - 5/16
  16. Reel 15: 5/17 - 5/32
  17. Reel 16: 5/33 - 5/42
  18. Reel 17: 6/1 - 6/20
  19. Reel 18: 6/21 - 6/55
  20. Reel 19: 6/55 - 6/55
  21. Reel 20: 7/1 - 7/9
  22. Reel 21: 7/10 - 7/21
  23. Reel 22: 7/22 - 7/32
  24. Reel 23: 7/33 - 7/48
  25. Reel 24: 8/1 - 8/11
  26. Reel 25: 8/12 - 8/14
  27. Reel 26: 8/15 - 8/20
  28. Reel 27: 8/21 - 9/9
  29. Reel 28: 9/10 - 9/18
  30. Reel 29: 9/19 - 9/20
  31. Reel 30: 10/1 - 10/4
  32. Reel 31: 10/5 - 10/10
  33. Reel 32: 10/11 - 10/16
  34. Reel 33: 11/1 - 11//16
  35. Reel 34: 11/17 - 11/30
  36. Reel 35: 11/31 - 12/6
  37. Reel 36: 12/7 - 12/24
  38. Reel 37: 12/25 - 12/40
  39. Reel 38: 12/41 - 13/6
  40. Reel 39: 13/7 - 13/17
  41. Reel 40: 13/18 - 13/32
  42. Reel 41: 13/33 - Calendars 1915
  43. Reel 42: Calendars 1916 - 1931
  44. Reel 43: Calendars 1932 - 1955
  45. Reel 44: Calendars 1956 - 1973
  46. Reel 45: 15/1 - 15/21
  47. Reel 46: 15/22 - 15/41
  48. Reel 47: 15/42 - 16/5
  49. Reel 48: 16/6 - 16/19
  50. Reel 49: 16/20 - 17/13

Separated Material

Some books in this collection have been removed; title copies of the removed books can be found in Series 5: Printed Material; Subseries 3: Various. The surplus and only sign of what must have been an extensive stamp collection has been removed from the collection.

Some photographs have been removed to the LBI Photograph Collection (F AR 25276).

Processing Information

In November 2008 Anya Quilitzsch worked on processing Series VIII: Addenda. In February 2009 Dianne Oummia completed work on the addenda, and its description was added to this finding aid. Processing of the addenda included indentification and preservation of the original alphabetical order of the correspondence, the bulk of the addenda. Material from similar chronological periods in Hans Froehlich's life were grouped together to form subseries, and basic preservation work was undertaken.

Title
Guide to the Papers of Hans Froehlich (1895-1980) 1842-1978 AR 25276 / MF 790
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Elisabeth Schöner Frey. Addenda processed by Anya Quilitzsch and Dianne Ritchey Oummia
Date
© 2008
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.
Edition statement
This version was derived from HansFroehlich.xml

Revision Statements

  • May 2008.: Microfilm inventory added.
  • February 2009.: Series VIII: Addenda added.
  • December 2009.: Microfilm inventory of Series VIII: Addenda added.
  • November 06, 2014 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.

Repository Details

Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States