Linton (Liebermann) family papers

This collection contains the personal papers of Louis Alexander Linton (formerly Ludwig Alexander Liebermann) and Susan Maria Linton (née Susanne Marie Friedmann), Jewish refugees from Berlin. Louis Linton was advised not to return from a business trip to England due to the anti-Semitic climate in Nazi Germany. His wife and children followed him a few months later in 1937. Susan Linton's father, Leopold Friedmann, died on the journey to Argentina when he and his wife Maria Friedmann fled Nazi-Germany in 1940.

The records document the Linton family's emigration, internment and new life in England. Included are papers, qualifications, work references and correspondence regarding Louis Linton's professional career as chemist and teacher -includes one photograph (1851/1); correspondence relating to the family's internment (1851/2), a transcript of Susan's diary written during her stay at Holloway prison in 1940 (1851/3); correspondence and references provided at the Aliens' Tribunal; and papers relating to the family's restitution claims (1851/4). Also included are papers and personal accounts of Leopold and Maria Friedmann's emigration to Argentina (1851/7), as well as some personal papers of Susan's aunt Friederike Friedmann, a Viennese school reformer who survived the war.

Louis Alexander Linton (formerly Ludwig Alexander Liebermann) was born into a middle class Jewish family in Berlin in 1896. He and his brother Albert (1897-1917) served in the army in the First World War. Albert died in battle in 1917. After obtaining his doctorate in chemistry, Ludwig worked in various chemical industry firms in Germany and abroad. From 1928 to 1933 he was manager of the Aluminium Foil Department of Wolf Netter, Ludwigshafen, and from 1933-1936 export manager of Rheinische Blattmetall A.G. Grevenbroich.

In 1936, Ludwig Liebermann was told by his manager not to return from his next business trip as the company would no longer be able to protect him, being a Jewish employee. He went to England in January 1937 and soon found employment as technical advisor and export manager of Fisher's Foils Limited in Wembley. His wife Susan Maria Linton (née Susanne Marie Friedmann), born in Vienna in 1902, and their two children Eva Maria (born 1932) and Albert Max (born 1935) followed him in November 1937.

In May 1940, Ludwig and his family were separated and interned for nine months at various alien internment camps, including Wharfs Mill, Huyton and Douglas. Susanne and the children were taken to Holloway prison but Eva and Albert were removed from her and sent to different children's homes. Susanne spent one month in prison before being transferred with her children to an internment camp near her husband on the Isle of Man.

After the family's release, Ludwig could not find work in the chemical industry because of his nationality. He started working as a teacher and continued with this work until several years after the war. The family was naturalised in 1947 and changed their names by deed poll in the same year.

Susan's parents, Leopold Friedmann (1874-1940) and Maria Lewy (born 1879), managed to obtain permission to emigrate to Argentina to be reunited with Susan's brother and his family in 1940. Leopold died on the journey.

The collection also includes the papers of Friederike Friedmann (1882-1968), an aunt of Susan Linton. It is not known whether she temporarily emigrated. After the Second World War she worked as headmistress and school inspector in Vienna. She was a protagonist of the Austrian school reforms.

Louis' parents, Alexander (1858-1940) and Elsbeth Liebermann (born 1859, née Neuberg), were married in 1894. Alexander worked as salesman for the cotton spinning mill in Kempten until 1938 when he was dismissed for being Jewish. He died in 1939/1940 of natural causes. His wife predeceased him.

Chronological

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Donated by Eva Holmes