This collection contains the papers of the Kupfer family, former Jewish refugees from Germany. Erich Kupfer was the grandson of the owner of the first shoe manufacturing company in Burgkunstadt and followed in his footsteps. He emigrated to the United States in 1938 to escape Nazi persecutions but his parents, uncle and grandmother were deported and murdered in concentration camps. His wife Ruth Kupfer (née Landau) fled to England in 1939. Her parents also perished in the Holocaust.
Included are papers relating to the family's restitution claims and pensions (1849/1-2); personal documents such as Erich Kupfer's birth certificate, qualifications, work references and conduct certificates, US immigration affidavit, military papers as well as Ruth Kupfer's criminal record certificate, UK certificate of registration and friendship book ('Poesiealbum') (1849/3. Also included are personal papers and war-time correspondence (1942-1943) of Karl and Selma Kupfer; family tree; papers and press cuttings relating to the shoe manufacturing business of the Weiermann family, the Jewish community in Wesel, and post-war visits to Wesel and Munich (1849/4).