This collection contains correspondence of Max Wolf of London relating to the emigration of his cousin Eugen Wolf, together with his wife Johanna and their daughter Marianne. The Jewish family did not manage to emigrate from Nazi Germany before the outbreak of the Second World War. They were deported and perished at Minsk Ghetto.
Includes correspondence with the German Jewish Aid Committee, personal correspondence between Max and Eugen Wolf, and Eugen Wolf's CV.
Eugen Wolf (born in Rhein-Hesse in 1893) initially trained as a banker in Mainz and worked for the Dresdner Bank in Dresden, Saxony, for two years. After the death of his father he took over the family farming and wine-growing business. He married Johanna Mann (born 1895) from Guntersblum in 1919 and continued the farming business of his father-in-law. They had one daughter, Marianne, who was born in Mainz in 1932.
It appears from the correspondence that during the November pogroms in 1938 the family house was vandalised and Eugen Wolf was imprisoned at a concentration camp. Marianne was sent to stay with relatives in Dusseldorf. As the family needed to emigrate urgently, Eugen asked his cousin Max Wolf in London for help. Eugen had already obtained an affidavit from a cousin in the United States and intended to stay temporarily in the UK whilst waiting for an American visa. In the meantime the family had to sell their house and business. In February 1939 they moved into a flat in Frankfurt where they were reunited with their daughter. Eugen and Johanna were unable to part with their only child when she was offered a place on the Kindertransport in June 1939. They then made an application to the British Home Office for visas for the whole family.
The family did not manage to leave Germany in time before the outbreak of the Second World War. They were deported to Minsk Ghetto, where they perished.
Chronological
See Wiener Library access conditions at: http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/usinglibrary/usingthelibrary.aspx
Donated by World Jewish Relief via Ms Montague
The documents were found at Singer & Friedlander Investment Management Limited in 2001, where Max Wolf used to work as bond dealer in the 1930s.
