Collection of letters relating to the immigration of Jakob and Amalia Tenenbaum.
Object numberM2020/039:001
TitleCollection of letters relating to the immigration of Jakob and Amalia Tenenbaum.
DescriptionSeven letters concerning the immigration of Jakob Tenenbaum, a “young machine engineer, a Jew”, from Lvov, Poland, through the Quakers’ German Emergency Fellowship Committee (GEFC), 1938-1939. Most of the appeals to the GEFC concerned people from Western Europe, but Jakob demonstrates one of the exceptions. Jakob petitioned Colonel Josiah Wedgwood in London in December 1938, requesting immigration assistance for himself and his wife, Amalia Minczeles. On 14 December he wrote, “There are situations in the life, which compels such letters… I as a Jew beg you – because we are human beings and children of one God – to send me a gift in the guise of a landing permit.” Jakob had read in the newspaper that Wedgwood was a “friend of Jews”. He apologised for the temerity to write and for his language errors; “It is courageously to write such a letter to a high-standing person, a letter with a request to help”.
One of the letters includes Josiah Wedgwood’s note to his daughter Camilla Wedgewood in Sydney about the appeal, “I cannot do anything for this man… What more can I do?” He had suggested to Tenenbaum that he get in touch with her. Camilla Wedgwood was the President and Chairperson of the German Emergency Fellowship Committee (GEFC) in Sydney. At the time, Camilla was an anthropologist and Principal of the Sydney University Women’s College. She replied to Jakob Tenenbaum in March 1939, explaining that heating engineers are not required in Australia and that he needs to provide more information about his work history. She advised him to contact the Jewish Welfare Societies in Europe or Australia for further assistance.
Jakob’s case was one of many that Camilla and the Quakers were unable to influence. Swamped with work, Camilla admitted, “to work like this, one has to develop the hide of a rhinoceros.”
Part of a collection of 442 documents from the archives of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), which relate to victims of persecution desperate to escape Nazi Germany and Austria. As early as 1933 the Nazis began implementing discriminatory laws intended to vilify and exclude those deemed “racially undesirable”, rounding up political dissidents and incarcerating them in camps, dismissing officials in civil service and positions in the universities, forcing the Aryanization of Jewish businesses, forbidding Jews from practicing in their professions, and so on. The ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom in November 1938 was the turning point resulting in mass emigration. Yet increasingly, nations, including Australia, limited quotas for Jewish refugees. In 1938, the German Emergency Fellowship Committee of the Quakers was established in Sydney. The letters, applications and articles through this committee speak to the urgent appeals flooding into benevolent organisations like the Quakers from ‘non-Aryans,’ including Jews, conscientious objectors, opponents of Nazi ideology and other ‘undesirables’. One letter from January 1939 mentions 70,000 applications for immigration to Australia at the Department of the Interior. The letters in this collection give voice to some of the individuals that made up that number; many of whom were never able to escape Europe.
One of the letters includes Josiah Wedgwood’s note to his daughter Camilla Wedgewood in Sydney about the appeal, “I cannot do anything for this man… What more can I do?” He had suggested to Tenenbaum that he get in touch with her. Camilla Wedgwood was the President and Chairperson of the German Emergency Fellowship Committee (GEFC) in Sydney. At the time, Camilla was an anthropologist and Principal of the Sydney University Women’s College. She replied to Jakob Tenenbaum in March 1939, explaining that heating engineers are not required in Australia and that he needs to provide more information about his work history. She advised him to contact the Jewish Welfare Societies in Europe or Australia for further assistance.
Jakob’s case was one of many that Camilla and the Quakers were unable to influence. Swamped with work, Camilla admitted, “to work like this, one has to develop the hide of a rhinoceros.”
Part of a collection of 442 documents from the archives of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), which relate to victims of persecution desperate to escape Nazi Germany and Austria. As early as 1933 the Nazis began implementing discriminatory laws intended to vilify and exclude those deemed “racially undesirable”, rounding up political dissidents and incarcerating them in camps, dismissing officials in civil service and positions in the universities, forcing the Aryanization of Jewish businesses, forbidding Jews from practicing in their professions, and so on. The ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom in November 1938 was the turning point resulting in mass emigration. Yet increasingly, nations, including Australia, limited quotas for Jewish refugees. In 1938, the German Emergency Fellowship Committee of the Quakers was established in Sydney. The letters, applications and articles through this committee speak to the urgent appeals flooding into benevolent organisations like the Quakers from ‘non-Aryans,’ including Jews, conscientious objectors, opponents of Nazi ideology and other ‘undesirables’. One letter from January 1939 mentions 70,000 applications for immigration to Australia at the Department of the Interior. The letters in this collection give voice to some of the individuals that made up that number; many of whom were never able to escape Europe.
Production date 1938 - 1939
Production periodpre-World War II
Subjectimmigration, escape attempts, escape pre-war, Australian link to Holocaust, non-Jewish victims, aid giving
Object nameofficial correspondence
Materialpaper
Language
- English
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, donated by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)