Felber family correspondence

The Felber family correspondence consists primarily of letters from Eta Birnbaum in Leipzig to her sister Erna and her children Lilli and Norbert in Belgium and France in 1940 and 1941. These letters describe her loneliness and unease, her worries about her imprisoned husband Markus Felber, and her reactions to plans to send her children to relatives in the United States. Most of the correspondence is original, but some letters are photocopies. Lilli Felber Green was born in Leipzig, Germany, in January 1926 to Markus Felber (1895-1942) and Eta (Adelheid) Birnbaum Felber (1900-1943). She had a younger brother named Norbert (1931-1998). Markus was imprisoned in Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald before being deported to Auschwitz in 1942 and killed. Eta’s sister Erna convinced Eta to send Lilli and Norbert to live with her in Belgium in 1939. When war broke out in Belgium in May 1940, Erna took Lilly, Norbert, and her own three children to France. Lilli and Norbert left for America aboard the SS Mouzinho on a children’s transport in June 1941 organized by the American Friends Service Committee and the United States Committee for the Care of European Children. They joined relatives Sam and Ida Birnbaum and their four children in Cleveland, OH. Eta Felber was deported to Auschwitz in 1943 and killed.