Esther Milich Family Collection 1919-2017 1930s-1960s

The Esther Milich Family Collection holds documents about the immigration of Esther Milich and her brother Nathan Berkowicz in 1939 and about other members of the Berkowicz and Milich families, including the fate of Berkowicz family members left behind in Europe. The collection also contains documentation on the restitution claims filed by Esther and her brother. This collection includes official, legal, and personal family correspondence; official and legal documents; personal family papers; and a few photographs and newspaper clippings.On January 17, 1922 the merchant Mojsze (also called Moritz) Fajwal Berkowicz married Pesia Mejer in Berlin. Mojsze had been born in 1893 in Kalisch, Poland (today Kalisz, Poland) and Pesia in 1902 in Ostrow, Poland (Ostrów). Mojsze owned a business in Berlin for men's and boys' clothing, M. Berkowitz. The couple had two surviving children: Esther (born April 4, 1922) and Natan (born December 27, 1928).After at least twenty years in existence in the late 1930s, the M. Berkowitz clothing store had expanded to three buildings. Mojsze supported members of both his wife's family and his own siblings in Poland, in addition to maintaining a well-furnished home with household help and private education for the children. The family store was damaged during the attacks on Jewish property on November 8-9, 1938 (Kristallnacht). With the aid of Pesia Berkowicz's two brothers living in New York, they were able to acquire American visas for Esther and Natan after the United States passed a law allowing the entry of additional refugee children. Having been born in Berlin, the children fell under the shorter German quota for visas even though Mojsze and Pesia belonged to the Polish quota. The children departed Hamburg on board the S.S. Hansa, but due to the outbreak of World War II the ship was sent back to Hamburg. Another passenger on the ship, Jürgen Wittenstein (later George Wittenstein, a future member of the White Rose) assisted in returning Esther and Nathan to their parents in Berlin.Several weeks later, the Berkowicz family received visas for Belgium, with plans for the children to travel onwards to the United States and Pesia and Mojsze to await their visas for England. At the border with Belgium Mojsze was removed from the train and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, Berlin. Pesia and the children continued to Brussels, where the children sailed to New York City on the S.S. Pennland on September 25, 1939. They lived with their uncle in the Bronx. Pesia remained in Brussels, trying to free her husband from Sachsenhausen. She eventually died on a transport to Auschwitz in 1942. Mojsze died in Sachsenhausen in 1942.In New York Esther met a fellow emigrant from Poland, Saul Milich, who also used the surname Miller for business. They married on June 26, 1942, a few months before he joined the army, 1942-1945. Esther's brother – now called Nathan – lived with the couple while Saul worked at various military bases in the United States. After the war the family moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where Saul and Nathan established a fur business, called Miller & Berkowitz. Esther and Saul had two children, Janice and Marvin. In 1955 Esther and Saul moved in 1973 to Howard Beach, Queens, where Nathan had helped found the Rockwood Park Jewish Center. Saul retired his fur business in the late 1980s and in 2006 moved to assisted living near their son Marvin.Saul Milich passed away in 2009, his wife Esther and brother-in-law Nathan in 2016.Finding aid available onlineProcesseddigitize