Guide to the Papers of Ernst Scheuer and Rosi Moses-Scheuer
1870s-1999

AR 25281

Series I: Correspondence, 1934 – 1969 .

Arrangement:

Alphabetical

Scope and Content:

This series contains personal correspondence between Ernst Scheuer and Rosi Moses- Scheuer and with Ernst Scheuer’s mother Emma Scheuer.

Subseries 1: Ernst Scheuer,  1934-1969.

Arrangement:

Chronological

Scope and Content:

Subseries 1 consists of letters and notes from Ernst Scheuer to Rosi-Moses Scheuer. The folders concern Ernst Scheuer’s letters to Rosi Moses-Scheuer during their life in Paris as well as vacations they took together in France and the Netherlands. Noteworthy are the letters Ernst Scheuer wrote to Rosi Moses-Scheuer during his detention in French camps in 1940. Of similar interest are Ernst Scheuer’s letters to Rosi Moses-Scheuer from a Spanish prison, recording their bad living conditions.

The letters written by Ernst Scheuer from New York during Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s absence document immigrants’ difficulties in establishing themselves in their new country.

Ernst Scheuer’s trip to Europe in 1969 is interesting for understanding an emigrant’s perception of his hometown after the Second World War.

Subseries 2: Rosi Moses-Scheuer,  1936-1951.

Arrangement:

Chronological

Scope and Content:

Subseries 2 consists of Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s letters to Ernst Scheuer. Letters from Rosi Moses-Scheuer to Ernst in 1939 and 1940 form the bulk of this subseries. These letters inform about her life in Paris and later her deportation to the detention center in Gurs as well as her struggle with the administration in order to receive immigration-visa to the United States. Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s letters also inform about Ernst Scheuer’s situation in the detention center of Sourioux.

Rosi Moses-Scheuer often left Manhattan with her baby-daughter while Ernst Scheuer stayed in New York; these letters provide information on their daily life after the war.

Subseries 3: Emma Scheuer, 1938- 1951,  1934-1969.

Arrangement:

Chronological

Scope and Content:

This small subseries contains letters from and to Emma Scheuer, Ernst Scheuer’s mother, who immigrated to the USA in 1937/38 and lived in Connecticut from that point on. The letters to and from Europe focus on Ernst Scheuer’s and Rosi Moses Scheuer’s struggle to get the permission to leave France for the United States well as give information on the life of German Jews in the United States.

Series II: Ernst Scheuer Diaries, 1921-1976.

Arrangement:

Chronological

Scope and Content:

This series contains Ernst Scheuer’s diaries. He started to keep a diary at the age of 15, but only Tagebuch I in folder 18 has been preserved from this early period. Kriegstagebuch in folder 19 is Ernst Scheuer’s typed war diary where he describes the period between the outbreak of the Second World War and their departure on the “Navemar” to New York. The diary provides information on the life of German Jews in their French exile, and the internment of all male Germans at the beginning of World War II by the French government. Ernst Scheuer’s war diaries describe life in these detention camps as well as his reunion with Rosi after his escape from the camp in the confusion of the French defeat in the summer of 1940. . The diary goes on describing Ernst and Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s marriage in Marseille, their imprisonment in Spain, their deportation back to France (Hendaye), and finally their successful attempt to cross Spain and go to Portugal where their boat, the “Navemar” set sea.

The diaries also contain notes on William Shirer’s “Berlin diary” (folder 20; this diary is partly reconstructed) or comments on the political situation during the war. Worth mentioning is the diary Ernst Scheuer kept during the Battle of Normandy (folder 24) The second typed diary contains the original diaries written between 1941 and 1976 (folder 21). Ernst Scheuer noted his ideas for new novels; his thoughts about politics (especially on Hitler’s Germany) and literature (e.g. notes on Joachim Fest’s Hitler biography), and diseases (the death of his mother in 1951 as well as Rosi’s and his own cancer). The diaries also document the difficulties and frustrations Ernst Scheuer had to face in finding a new career in the United States, as well as his commitment to his own bookstore. In order to find books and to reestablish relations with publishing houses, he traveled to London and Paris in 1969; the description of this journey is also included in his diaries (folder 26) as well as a trip to Scandinavia with Rosi in 1973.

Series III: Manuscripts, 1920s-1999.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical

Scope and Content:

This series consists of manuscripts written by Ernst Scheuer and Rosi Moses-Scheuer. Ernst Scheuer’s writings are mostly novels, some of which exist in several versions or are unfinished. There are also (non-fictional) essays and short stories. Rosi Moses-Scheuer wrote primarily memoirs and autobiographical texts, but also texts giving information on the family history.

Subseries 1: Ernst Scheuer Manuscripts,  1929-1976.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical

Scope and Content:

This subseries contains writings by Ernst Scheuer. As a professional writer, he tried to make a living by writing novels in spite of his less than perfect English.

In the 1920s and 30s, Ernst Scheuer worked on the comedy “Mehr Glueck als Verstand” which he renamed later “Kunst, Geschaeft und Liebe” and which exists in several versions in this subseries (folder 37). At the same time, he wrote a novel about a young artist who tries to establish himself in the art business: Gregor Stahl (folder 33), as well as the novella “Karola”, a love story that is also situated in the world of arts (folder 35).

Ernst Scheuer’s manuscripts in America often are autobiographical and digest the emigration experience, like: “Spanish Women in Prison” (he was able to publish this article in two journals; related documents as well as the German text can be found in folder 38), “Frederic – The Story of a German Soldier” (folder 32, containing several versions), “Die Auslieferung” (folder 30) and folder 31 containing beginnings of autobiographical writings (especially “Die Hochzeitsreise).

The following three manuscripts are without imminent autobiographical background: “Kollegin Paula” (folder 36; 2 versions) is a story about relationships in an office; “Das Hexenmal” (folder 34) is a fictional story about a woman being accused to be a witch. “Von Oben” (folder 40) is a collection of three fictional short stories: “Der Fall bleibt raetselhaft”, “Episoden aus dem peleponnesischen Kriege” and “Kummer und Zweifel”. (Note: There are two versions of “Von Oben” in folder 40).

Folder 39 contains various notes, autobiographical and philosophical essays (e.g. on his perception of World War I and the German Revolution of 1918/19) or political essays such as “Hitler wiederholte ein Experiment” and “Hitler’s Responsibility to the German People”, poems (especially on lost love) and fictional short stories like “Der Irrweg des Hans Karo”. Sometimes Ernst Scheuer used the pseudonyms “Alexander Donner” and “Dietrich Passepartout” in his writings.

Subseries 2: Rosi Moses-Scheuer manuscripts,  1942-1999.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical

Scope and Content:

This subseries consists of Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s writings. She wrote primarily memoirs and autobiographical texts, but also texts about family history.

“And now in America…First months of an emigrant” (folder 1) deals with Ernst Scheuer’s and Rosi Moses Scheuer’s first experiences in the United States after their arrival in New York: How they were received by Ernst Scheuer’s mother and sister and how they got an apartment.

In “Birth to USA” (folder 2) Rosi Moses-Scheuer described her life starting at her birth in 1914 in Zehdenick/Havel (Germany) and up to Ernst Scheuer’s and Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s naturalization in the 1950s. This folder gives information on her family background, her education, her jobs, on how she went to Paris, how she met Ernst Scheuer, their stay in French detention camps and on their emigration to the US as well as on their life in New York. The “Untitled Memoir” (folder 7) describes Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s life until May 1940 and their deportation to the French detention center in Gurs; it also contains information on her family and friends.

“Coming to America – The Wedding Trip” (folder 3) focuses on Ernst Scheuer and Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s time in French detention centers and their struggle for the emigration to the United States. It also mentions their voyage on board of the ill fated Navemar. “Remembrances” (folder 6) covers the same period of time.

“A Portable Typewriter Speaks” (folder 4) is the life story of Ernst Scheuer’s typewriter, how it made it from Frankfurt (Germany), through Paris to New York. Rosi Moses-Scheuer wrote 3 versions of this story that can be found in this folder.

In “Profiles of Anti-Hitler Refugees” (folder 5) Rosi Moses-Scheuer summarizes the life stories of her relatives and friends, some of them perished, and others survived the Holocaust.

Folder 9 containing writings on Ernst and Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s family gives a lot of information on the Moses and the Scheuer’s family histories, for example on Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s father and mother and their families but also on her difficult relation to Ernst Scheuer’s sister.

“Unsorted writings” (folder 8) includes a letter to the editor published in the New York Times entitled “Kristallnacht in Germany”, a description of how Rosi Moses-Scheuer managed to visit Ernst Scheuer at the detention camp near Vierzon, France, a list of Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s surgeries and medical interventions as well as a list of burglaries in Ernst and Rosi Scheuer’s apartments in New York.

Series IV: Miscellaneous, 1870s-1997.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical

Scope and Content:

This series contains newspaper articles concerning Hilde Domin as well as dedications to Ernst Scheuer and Rosi Moses-Scheuer by Hilde Domin (folder 10). The books in which the dedications are written are removed to the library collections, this folder contains photocopies of the dedications.

Another folder consists of various documents, letters and telegrams. It contains letters to German newspapers that Rosi Moses-Scheuer wrote after the death of her husband in order to inquire about the possible publication of Ernst Scheuer’s manuscripts. Also included are catalogs of Ernst Scheuer’s book store, Ernst and Rosi Scheuer’s French marriage certificate, Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s French contracts of employment, telegrams that notify the couple of the departure of their ship ‘Navemar’, French social security certifications, French rent receipts, a letter from Rosa Moses née Ladewig to Max Moses (Rosi Moses-Scheuer’s grandparents), a Spanish medical certification, the United States visa certifications, permits to leave the detention camps and France.