Walter and Edith Pelz Collection

The collection contains a wide variety of official papers and personal correspondence of Walter and Edith Pelz before, during, and after World War II. Much of the correspondence is between prominent personalities in the journalism and arts world of that era.

The first two folders contain personal documents of Walter and Edith Pelz. These include birth, marriage, and death certificates, also for their parents generation, as well as employment documents, reference letters, Iron Cross award certificate, and other similar identity papers. The documents in folder 3 demonstrate the various challenges in terms of employment and being registered as aliens confronting the Pelz's during their early years in the United States. Folder 4 contains documents related to their efforts to secure a visa and travel possibilities for Edith's mother, Julie Böhm. These efforts were eventually unsuccessful and Mrs. Böhm was deported in 1942 and killed.

Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, provided the affadavit for the Pelz's, enabling their emigration. Folders 5, 6, and 7 contain personal correspondence with Sulzberger and his wife, with the journalist Louis Lochner and his wife, and with the German Pastor Heinrich Grüber, all of whom were personal friends of the Pelz. Folder 8 contains miscellaneous post-war personal and business correspondence and papers including their naturalization certificates.

Of particular interest is the album of clippings in folder 9 made to commemorate conductor and composer Leo Blech's 60th birthday in 1931. This album also contains loose notecards, letters, sketches, and photographs from various prominent musician personalities including Heinrich Grünfeld, Eugen d'Albert, Wilhelm Kienzl, Erich Wolfgang Kornfeld, Siegfried Wagner, and Emil Nikolaus Reznicek.