Ruth Kupperschlag papers

Ruth Kupperschlag (1925-2019) was born in Solingen, Germany on March 3, 1925 to Josef Kupperschlag (1888-1944) and Anna Kupperschlag (née Isaac, 1894-1944) who owned the Alsberg department store in Solingen. Their second daughter, Marion (1926-1976), was born on November 20, 1926. During Kristallnacht Josef was arrested. Soon after, Anna and Josef started to arrange for Ruth and Marion to leave Germany on a Kindertransport. In March 1939, Ruth, 14, and Marion, 12, left on a train for the Netherlands where they lived in a refugee camp until moving to live with relatives in Amsterdam. Josef and Anna remained in Solingen. Anna corresponded with her cousin, Idel Woog in Bern, Switzerland, and the last letter to her was written by Anna on July 8, 1942. On July 20, 1942, Josef and Anna were deported to Theresienstadt. On September 9, 1944, Anna wrote a postcard to her cousin in which she asked for more correspondence and worried that she had no news from her children. In late 1944 Anna and Josef were deported to Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau) where they were killed. In the spring of 1943 Ruth and Marion were arrested and kept in Amsterdam before being transferred to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp (Vught). During this time Ruth and Marion worked at the factory run by Frits Philips. After about a year, in June 1944, Ruth and Marion were transported to Auschwitz and in January 1945 they were sent on a death march. After liberation Ruth and Marion were taken to Denmark. Marion remained in the Netherlands and Ruth left Europe in 1951, first to Brazil and four years later to the United States. The Ruth Kupperschlag papers consist of documents and photographs relating to Ruth and Marion Kupperschlag’s experience on a Kindertransport and life in the Netherlands and their parents Josef and Anna’s deportation to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. The collection includes letters sent to Anna’s cousin, Idel Woog, from Josef and Anna Kupperschlag, including letters sent from Theresienstadt shortly before their deportation to Auschwitz, as well as letters from Ruth to her Aunt and Uncle, prewar family photographs, typed narratives about Ruth’s experience, documentation of Josef’s military service, and an Allied Expeditionary Forces Displaced Persons (A.E.F D.P.) registration record and repatriation records for Ruth.