Henny Wenkart papers

Henny (Henriette) Wenkart was born in Vienna, Austria on 5 July 1928, the daughter of Hermann (b. 1896) and Rose (b. 1904, nee Stein) Wenkart. In 1939, she was chosen to be one of the "50 children" who immigrated to the United States as part of a transport organized by Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus in June 1939. After her own immigration, Henny was reunited with her parents and sister Elenore, who arrived in New York on September 1, 1939. The Wenkart family lived in Brooklyn, then moved to Baltimore, and eventually, Providence, Rhode Island, where Henny later earned a bachelor's degree from Pembroke College. She subsequently earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a doctorate in philosophy from Harvard, where she also taught philosophy and writing. Of her extended family, her paternal grandmother, Drorah Chaya Wenkart, was able to escape to Switzerland via Italy, where she took refuge in a convent during the war, and after the war joined Henny's uncle, Ignaz Wenkart, who had immigrated to New York in 1938. On her mother's side, an uncle, Leo Stein, was killed at Buchenwald, and an aunt, Marie, managed to escape to Palestine, via Latvia, with her husband and son. The Henny Wenkart papers includes passports, postcards, photographs, and printed material, related to the childhood and emigration of Henny (Henriette) Wenkart from Nazi-occupied Austria as one of the "50 Children" on the transport organized by Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus in June 1939. Includes childhood photographs of Wenkart and her family, German passports for Wenkart and her mother, Rose (Rachela) Wenkart, postcards sent by Wenkart's father, Hermann, including those sent to family members during World War I, and several publications containing poetry written by Wenkart reflecting on her experiences of emigration and being a refugee from Nazi Germany. Included in the collection is a folder of biographical documents, chiefly about Wenkart’s later writings and reminiscences about her experiences, as well as two German-issued passports for Henny and her mother, Rose (Rachela), prior to their emigration from Austria. Among the family photographs, the bulk are childhood photographs of Henny taken in Austria, from her infancy up to the time of her departure in 1939. Also included are photos of her mother’s family, the Steins, and her father’s family, the Wenkarts, along with portraits of Henny’s parents, Rose and Hermann Wenkart. Also included is a childhood photograph of Henny’s future husband, Heinz David Epstein, prior to his family’s emigration from Germany. The folder of postcards are chiefly those sent by Hermann Wenkart to his family, and to his future wife, Rose Stein, while Wenkart served in the Austrian army during World War I. Published material consists largely of poetry and autobiographical essays by Wenkart, from the 1990s and 2000s, which reflect upon her experiences of emigration and exile.