Ettinger family collection 1891-2006

This collection contains the papers of the Ettinger family originally of Fulda, Germany, and related families. Materials include personal papers, official and legal papers, photographs, and some personal correspondence and ephemera. The collection reflects the experience of some family members in internment and forced labor camps in France, their later immigration to the United States, and their restitution claims. The photographs are either formal portraits or depict leisure activities from the late 19th century through the 1930s.Betty née Stern (1888-1964) of Fulda, Germany had one son, John Louis (alternatively Ludwig) Weisenbach (1912-1986), with her first husband Moritz Weisenbach. After Moritz Weisenbach’s death, Betty married Josef Ettinger, with whom she had another son, Jean-Claude (alternatively Julius or John) Ettinger (1920-2004). The Ettinger family lived in Fulda until the 1930s, when Betty and her two sons fled to Paris, France. In 1940, all three were sent to internment camps in France, including Camp de Gurs and Camp de Rivesaltes. Jean-Claude Ettinger was forced to labor for Oganisation Todt at the Bastennes labor camp in France. Betty Ettinger and her first son John Louis Weisenbach immigrated to the United States in 1946. They settled in New York, where John Louis Weisenbach worked at the Waldorf-Astoria.Betty Ettinger’s second son Jean-Claude Ettinger married Rita Bick, and the couple settled in the Bronx (New York, NY). Rita Bick was born in Berlin on September 19, 1920 to Willy Bick (1890-1946), a goldsmith and jeweler in Berlin, and Gertrude Bick née Rosenthal (1893-1979), who ran a store for ladies’ clothing. Rita immigrated to England with her family in the late 1930s and then to the United States in 1946.Rita Bick’s uncle on her mother’s side was Alfons Rosenthal (alternatively Louis Alfons). He and his wife Ernesta née Meyer were both dentists. They married in Berlin in 1935 and immigrated via Holland to the United States. Moritz Meyer, a relative of Ernesta Rosenthal née Meyer, led the Speditions- und Lagerhaus Aktien-Gesellschaft in Berlin, a transport and storage company.Rita Bick’s aunt on her father’s side was Herta Bick, who married Leo Maler. His brother (?), Julius Maler was born in Berlin in 1895 and escaped Nazi persecution to Shanghai. Their sister (?), Betty Aschkenasy née Maler had a daughter, Elfriede (alternatively Elfie), who was sent on the Kindertransport to England and whose immigration to the United States in 1948 was sponsored by the Ettinger family. Elfriede née Aschkenasy later married Erich (alternatively Eric) Willdorf.Gerda Schulz (born 1908) married the musician Albin Nemeczek in 1934. She was baptized at the St. Hedwig Kirche in Berlin the same year. Albin Nemeczek divorced Gerda in 1943 because of her Jewish heritage. Another relative of the Schulz family was Herbert Doehl. It is not clear how the Schulz, Doehl, and Nemeczek families are related to the Bick and Ettinger families.Processeddigitize