Category:Kraus Rescue Mission (subject)

Kraus Rescue Mission (see Holocaust Children Studies)

KEYWORDS : Holocaust Refugee Children, United States -- Holocaust Refugee Children -- Jewish Rescuers

Overview

In early 1939, a Jewish couple from Philadelphia, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, with support from the president of the Independent Order of Brith Sholom, Lewis Levine began developing a plan to rescue Jewish children inside Nazi Germany. They were able to obtain 50 U.S. visas and then travelled to Germany in April to select the children for rescue. Upon their arrival the Krauses were told by the Consular Chargé d'Affaires that there were over 200 eligible children in Vienna, and they immediately left for the Austrian capital. The ship left Hamburg for New York on May 23, 1939.

50 children arrived in the United States. Just days before they were to leave Vienna, one of the children, Heinrich Steinberger became ill; his place was taken by Alfred Berg (Steinberger later was killed in Sobibor). Another child Fransi Linhard (1926-1939) died of pneumonia shortly after her arrival in the United States.

The children (alphabetical order)

Heinrich Steinberger (M / Austria, 1933-1942), Holocaust victim

Kurt Admon (M / Austria, 1928), Holocaust survivor (doc, 2013)

Paul Beller (M / Austria, 1931), Holocaust survivor

Alfred Berg (M / Austria, 1924-2013), Holocaust survivor

Charlotte Berg (F / Austria, 1930), Holocaust survivor

Marianne Berg (F / Austria, 19??), Holocaust survivor

Erwin Berkowitz (M / Austria, 1927), Holocaust survivor

Robert Braun (M / Austria, 1928), Holocaust survivor]] (doc, 2013) -- Robert and Johanna Braun. The Braun children lived with the Krauses until after the war, when they were reunited with their parents.

Johanna Braun

Relly Eisenberg (F / Austria, 1931), Holocaust survivor

Fred Freuthal (M / Austria, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Fritz Haber (M / Austria, 1928), Holocaust survivor

Gerda Halote Stein, Holocaust survivor]] (doc, 2013)

Felix Heilpern (M / Austria, 1927), Holocaust survivor

Kurt Herman (M / Austria, 1929-2014), Holocaust survivor

Robert Keller (M / Austria, 1926), Holocaust survivor

Klara Lee (F / Austria, 1930), Holocaust survivor

Fred Lifschutz (M / Austria, 19??), Holocaust survivor

Robert Lifschutz (M / Austria, 19??), , Holocaust survivor (doc, 2013)

Fransi Linhard (F / Austria, 1926-1939), Holocaust survivor

Peter Linhard (M / Austria, 1933-2005), Holocaust survivor

Klara Rattner Lee (F / Austria, 1930), Holocaust survivor (doc, 2013)

Kurt Roth (M / Austria, 1928), Holocaust survivor

Bianca Siegmann (F / Austria, 1931), Holocaust survivor

Edith Sommer (F / Austria, 1930), Holocaust survivor

Robert Spies (M / Austria, 1929), Holocaust survivor (doc, 2013)

Ella Spiegler Goldstein (F / Austria, 1928), Holocaust survivor

Ella Spiegler Goldstein was born in Vienna, Austria on 29 September 1928, the daughter of Wilhelm and Clara (née Bromberger) Spiegler. Following the Nazi-led German annexation of Austria in 1938, the Spiegler family began making plans to emigrate. When the family heard about the efforts of an American couple, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, to sponsor fifty Jewish children from Vienna for immigration to the United States, they applied to have their daughter included, which she was. Ella left Europe in May 1939, with the other "50 children" selected by the Krauses, on the S.S. President Harding, which arrived in New York on 3 June 1939. She, with the other children, initially was sent to the Brith Sholomville childrens home, in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. While other children were soon reunited with their parents, Ella was not able to rejoin her parents, who had immigrated to England, and were not able to immigrate to the United States in 1948. In 1941, she moved to Newark, New Jersey, and after she finished her schooling, went to work in various clerical positions, at the RCA Corporation and later at a department store in Newark. In 1948 she met Benjamin Goldstein (born 21 April 1917), a native of Hartford, Connecticut, and the two were married the following year in Newark.

Henry Tamar (M / Austria, 1929-2014), Holocaust survivor

Erika Tamar (F / Austria, 1934), Holocaust survivor

Ruth Taub Feldman (F / Austria, 1928), Holocaust survivor

Ruth Taub emigrated as one of the "50 children" in the spring of 1939. Her parents, Markus and Jeanette, came from Vienna to the United States in March 1940.

Ruth Taub (now Ruth Feldman) was born on November 30, 1928, in Vienna, Austria as the only child of Markus and Jeanette Taub, who had both been born in Poland. Markus ran a grocery in Vienna and helped support members of his extended family, who had joined him in Austria. In 1938, the grocery was forcibly confiscated by the Nazis and Ruth was forced to leave public school for a Jewish school. In the spring of 1939, the Taubs sent Ruth to the United States as part of the "50 children" who immigrated with the assistance of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus of Philadelphia, PA. At the same time, Markus and Jeanette sought relatives in the United States who could write an affidavit for their support. Through distant cousins, they were connected with Leah and Harry Grubstein, who were not relatives but willing and able to sign an affidavit for Markus and Jeanette. Ruth arrived in the United States on the President Harding in early June 1939. After a summer at the Brith Sholom camp, she went to live with Leah and Harry Grubstein in New Jersey. Markus and Jeanette waited in Vienna for their quota numbers; in 1940, Markus was imprisoned in Buchenwald. Markus was released when their immigration paperwork was in order, and the couple arrived in the United States in March 1940. The Taubs moved with their distant cousins, the Schneidermans, and Markus began selling fruits and vegetables from a pushcart. He eventually opened a store. Most of their extended family perished in the Holocaust.

Erwin Tepper (M / Austria, 1931), Holocaust survivor (doc, 2013)

Elfriede Toch (F / Austria, 1925), Holocaust survivor

Born Sept 30, 1925 in Vienna, Austria

Julius Wald (M / Austria, 1930), Holocaust survivor

Henny Wenkart (F / Austria, 1928), Holocaust survivor

Inge Weiss Michaels (F / Austria, 1931-2002), Holocaust survivor

Inge Weiss Michaels (1931-2002) was born February 1, 1931 in Vienna, Austria to carpenter Leiser (Layzer, Leon) Weiss (1893-1908) and his wife Stella Weiss (née Zehngut, 1903-1963). Inge had one sister, Kitty (born August 7, 1933, Vienna). Leiser was the oldest child and supported his large Polish family after the death of his father. He was talented and intelligent, worked as a carpenter, and owned real estate. The family lived in a home on one of the inner ring streets in Vienna and also had a summer home. Stella was always able to buy a new hat for the holidays, which was an important status symbol at the time.

One of Leon’s apprentices was a member of the Hitler Youth and warned Leon of trouble. One day he let Leon know that the Nazis were coming, so the family hid at home with the lights out and were safe. Leon had previously received an affidavit from his mother and younger brother living in the U.S., who told him to immigrate first and then send for his family, but Leon secured a visa for Stella as well. Stella convinced Leon to send Inge and Kitty to America in June 1939 as part of the “50 children” rescued by Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus and the Brith Sholom organization. Stella and Leon sent jewelry ahead to his mother and brother, but his brother turned out to be a gambler and squandered their assets. Stella and Leon Weiss immigrated in August 1939 and were reunited with Inge and Kitty. They first lived with Leon’s mother and brother, then in another apartment, and later bought a house with a porch in the Bronx. Leon was initially angry about purchasing the house in a Catholic neighborhood until he realized what a good deal they had made. He rented a place near the Grand Concourse for his carpentry shop, and Stella was a homemaker.

Inge and Kitty attended public schools in New York. Inge was initially placed in a lower grade at school while she learned English, but within a year she joined her own grade. After high school, Inge’s mother wanted her to learn a trade and become a seamstress instead of attending college. Kitty attended college, studied music and arts, and became an art teacher and artist. She married a man with the last name Penner and had two sons, Charlie and Jonathon. Charlie Penner lives in Ann Arbor and has two daughters, Julie and Leah. Jonathon Penner lives in LA and has two children, Cooper and Ava.

Inge wanted to be independent from her family and got married young to Bernard Wagman. He was dishonorably discharged from the military, but Inge thought their marriage would survive because he was from a well-to-do Jewish family. His parents bought them a house on Long Island and a liquor store for Bernie to run, and their daughter Tina was born in 1950. Unfortunately, Bernie was a gambler, and when Inge learned he was spending the cash from the store to fund his gambling debts, she left him. She and Tina moved in with her parents, and Inge worked as a film editor and held another job to supplement her income.

Inge married Charles Michaels, who had two children from his first marriage. In 1957 they moved to a town outside Pittsburgh where Charlie worked as a salesman and Inge worked for Alcoa. After a year, they moved to Florida where Charlie had family. Inge initially found it difficult to find a job, but eventually became a secretary in a real estate office and later obtained her sales and broker’s licenses. Her parents also moved to Florida in 1958, selling the New York apartments they had invested in and purchasing property in Coral Gables. Charlie also went into real estate, encouraged and tutored by Inge in the business. They established Michael’s Real Estate around 1960.

Inge and Charlie were strict parents. Inge wanted Tina to become a teacher. Tina attended the University of Florida in Gainesville for one year, but her parents made her return home and attend to the University of Miami. In 1971, Tina married physician Michael Coverman. They lived in Seattle for four years while he was a resident and then two years in Nebraska while he served in the Air Force and she obtained her MA in Business Administration. They then moved to Texas and raised two daughters, Anya and Tess.

Kitty Weiss Penner (F / Austria, 1933), Holocaust survivor

Kitty Weiss, born August 7, 1933 in Vienna, Austria, describes her family; her older sister Inge Weiss (born in 1931); her father Layzer Weiss, who was originally from Galicia; her mother Stella, who was from Vienna; her father’s work as a carpenter, which served him well in the Austrian Army in World War I; her father’s move to the United States; her mother seeing an ad about the Children’s Transport to the US run by the Krauses and a Jewish organization and enrolling both of her daughters; Kristallnacht in Austria on November 10, 1938; her mother securing visas for her and her husband and for her in-laws through American relatives; going with her sister on a Kindertransport to the US in June 1939; going with 50 children by train through Berlin and taking a ship to the US; arriving in New York City; being placed in a summer camp near Philadelphia, PA; her parents’ arrival in August 1939; living in an apartment in Brooklyn; moving to the Bronx when she was in the third grade; her father opening a workshop; attending a special high school of music and art; attending Brooklyn College and transferring to Barnard; getting married; having two children; becoming a US citizen; being an atheist; her cousins who went by Kindertransport to England; visiting many places in Europe including Warsaw, Sobibor, and Auschwitz to learn about her relatives; her social life; and writing a memoir for her children and grandchildren. (After the interview, Kitty shows photos of her and her relatives.)

Helga Weisz Milberg (F / Austria, 1930-2012), Holocaust survivor (doc, 2013)

Fritzi Zinger Nozik (F / Austria, 1930), Holocaust survivor

Elizabeth Zinger Davis (F / Austria, 1933), Holocaust survivor

Hugo Zulawski (M / Austria, 1926-2003), Holocaust survivor