Klaus G. Loewald Family Collection

The collection can be grouped into three broad categories: papers and documents, correspondence, and photographs. The Loewald family papers, including the folder of Klaus Loewald papers, contains extensive documentation of the process of emigrating from Germany during the period after 1938. Klaus Loewald’s papers contain correspondence and documents with authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Palestine regarding emigration. His family’s papers include passports, tickets, letters of recommendation, and various other official documents which illustrate their journey out of Germany to Sweden, and then over Russia and Japan to the United States during the period from 1939-1942. The family papers also include various vital documents such a birth and wedding certificates, and other official papers and documents largely dating to the 19th and early 20th centuries, with a few documents from the United States after the war. Similarly, Klaus Loewald’s papers also contain his birth certificate and schooling papers from before the war, and university, identification, and marriage documents from after the war.

The Landshut family papers include several letters of recommendation and other documents pertaining to Rosa Landshut’s (later Loewald) career as a nurse during the first World War, as well as some of her school papers and various vital records and identification papers. This folder also notably contains many documents originating from Alma Landshut’s internment in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, including transport orders and camp money (Lagergeld), as well as some of the paperwork she received upon her liberation and transport to Berlin after the war and upon emigration to the United States.

Much of the correspondence also dates to the war period, including several letters and messages to and from Alma while she was interned in Theresienstadt. Other letters are from family members who could not leave Germany, or from other relatives who emigrated elsewhere. There are also a handful of letters from the 19th century.

Finally, the collection contains several photos, most of which document Rosa Landshut’s work as a nurse during the first World War. There are also photos of her brother Hans as a soldier during the first World War, and a handful of photos of Berlin scenes and events during the Weimar period and during the Nazi dictatorship, including a couple images of Jewish gatherings in the mid-1930s.