Sigmund Feist Collection
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains personal papers and correspondence which document the personal and professional lives of Sigmund and Toni Feist from the 1880s through their emigration to Denmark in 1939. The personal papers are particularly rich in materials on emigration and contain identification cards, renunciation of German citizenship, as well as older personal documents, including some of Feist's school papers. A limited amount of correspondence, including a number of postcards which Feist had assembled in an album, also document the family's personal life. The correspondence file of Feist's daughter Elisabeth Hirsch documents her unsuccessful attempts to secure passage of her parents to join her in the United States.
Dates
- Creation: 1847-1945
Creator
- Feist, Sigmund, 1865-1943 (Person)
Language of Materials
This collection is in German, English, French, and Danish.
Access Restrictions
The collection is 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
Sigmund Feist, born in Mainz in 1865, received his doctorate and teaching certificate from the University of Strasbourg in 1890, which entitled him to teach German, French and English within the German school system. He first taught languages at a school in Bingen am Rhein in the early 1890s, and went on to head his own private school in Mainz in 1904. Feist later moved to Berlin, where he became director of the Reichenheim Orphanage(Reichenheimsches Waisenhaus), until his retirement in 1935. He emigrated to Copenhagen with his wife shortly after the outbreak of World War II in December 1939. Attempts by relatives to help the couple emigrate to the U.S. remained unsuccessful. Sigmund Feist died in Copenhagen in 1943. His wife Toni Feist (née Rawicz) emigrated to Sweden after his death, and eventually to England.
Extent
0.25 Linear Feet (7 folders)
Abstract
This collection contains personal papers and correspondence which document the personal and professional lives of Sigmund and Toni Feist from the 1880s through their emigration to Denmark in 1939.
Other Finding Aid
An earlier inventory is included in folder 1.
Separated Materials
Photographs have been removed to the LBI Photograph Collection.
Subject
- Feist, Sigmund, 1865-1943 (Person)
- Hirsch, Elisabeth Feist (Person)
- Feist, Toni, 1880- (Person)
- Feist family (Family)
- Reichenheim'sches Waisenhaus (Organization)
Genre / Form
- Black-and-white photographs
- Correspondence
- Genealogical tables
- Legal documents
- Personal papers
- Photographs
Geographic
- Berlin (Germany)
- England -- Emigration and immigration
- Europe -- Emigration and immigration
- Germany -- History -- 20th century
- Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany)
Occupation
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the Sigmund Feist Collection, 1847-1945 AR 3059
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by LBI Staff
- Date
- © 2009
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- December 09, 2011 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository
