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'Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt' newsletter featuring Wir Jungen Juden exhibition
رقم الكائنM2021/024:006
العنوان'Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt' newsletter featuring Wir Jungen Juden exhibition
الوصفNewsletter entitled 'Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt'. This newsletter was published circa 1937. The main article is entitled 'Wir Jungen Juden' (We Young Jews) which was an exhibition held in Hamburg to showcase various community organisations available to Hamburg's Jewish youth. One of the accompanying article images was photographed by Gustav (Gus) Wolfers in 1937. Gus was an amateur photographer who published in a variety of German publications and continued his photography once he immigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1937.
Collection of documents relating to the re-education of German Jewish populations and the immigration of Gustav (also known as Guschi/Gus) Paul Wolfers and his wife Grete Wolfers (nee Abrahamssohn). Emigrating from Hamburg in 1937, the Wolfers travelled to Sydney, Australia, escaping rising antisemitic measures enforced throughout Germany.
Gustav Wolfers was born 13 August 1910 to Hugo Wolfers (1875-1941) and Olga Wolfers (nee Oppenheimer) (1885-1941). Gustav was the second of four siblings; Heinz, Alice and Ellen. Alice passed away in 1932 from Polio.
With experience working in his family' s successful textile firm, Gustav attended the Grone commercial school where he obtained an apprenticeship in the textile industry. From this apprenticeship, he was able to start his own business in 1932 as a sales representative and textile wholesaler. However, after boycotting calls in 1933 by the Nazi Party, Gustav' s business declined and he was forced to look to other skills and professions for work. German-Israelite Hamburg programs were introduced for youth to gain the skills required for successful immigration. From 1935, he retrained as a carpenter under the direction of Mr Jacob Blanari. An amateur photographer, Gustav practised his photography on the streets of Hamburg, at synagogues and at various Jewish youth exhibitions until 1937. From about 1935, his photographs were published in various Jewish Hamburg publications and he aspired to continue his career upon his emigration.
After 1933, Gustav made numerous unsuccessful attempts to emigrate from Germany. He met Grete Abrahamssohn at a Hamburg Jewish ball in 1934. With new antisemitic measures introduced, the couple saw no future for young Jewish people in Germany. They started English, Spanish and French lessons to allow for a smooth transition upon emigration. It was through one of these immigration applications that Gustav proposed marriage to Grete. Grete recalls him completing the form and asking ' Shall I fill in married?' Their wedding took place on 3 October 1937 in Bornplatz Synagogue (destroyed during Kristallnacht) in Hamburg. The couple escaped Hamburg to Australia during their honeymoon in October 1937, travelling via Holland to visit Grete' s sister, Else Grossmeyer and brother, Norbert Abrahamssohn.
The Wolfers arrived in Sydney on 2 December 1937 aboard the steamship ORAMA. Although promised a permanent job on arrival, Gustav was unemployed by his second day. After this he struggled to find permanent work, working intermittently as a cabinet maker. Grete supported them, forced to work as a cleaner for three months before gaining work as a stenographer and typist. To supplement their income, Gustav used his photography skills and camera brought from Germany to photograph houses within their local neighbourhood, Haberfield and sell them back to the homeowners. According to Grete, Gustav' s photography as well as the couples understanding of languages caused them to come under suspicion. During the war they were labelled as enemy aliens, until their naturalisation as Australian citizens in 1944.
The couple eventually settled in Gordon, New South Wales and had three children; Edward, Norma and Howard. Gustav continued to work as a cabinet-maker and shop fitter before he passed away on 7 August 1982 at the age of 71. Grete passed away on 19 January 2004, aged 91.
Gustav' s parents Hugo and Olga Wolfers were deported to Riga ghetto on 6 December 1941. The particular circumstances and date of their death are unknown. Hugo and Olga had made plans to reunite in Australia with Gustav and Grete, but were unable to leave after war was declared. Heinz Wolfers suffered from schizophrenia and was institutionalised in 1935. He died due to the consequences of pulmonary tuberculosis on 3 May 1940. This was likely due to the poor nursing care and neglect, then common to many Jewish patients. Gustav never spoke of him.
Ellen Berg (nee Wolfers) was unable to undertake her preferred study due to antisemitic laws but was able to immigrate to England in February 1939 working in child care. Ellen passed away aged 94 in England in 2014.
Collection of documents relating to the re-education of German Jewish populations and the immigration of Gustav (also known as Guschi/Gus) Paul Wolfers and his wife Grete Wolfers (nee Abrahamssohn). Emigrating from Hamburg in 1937, the Wolfers travelled to Sydney, Australia, escaping rising antisemitic measures enforced throughout Germany.
Gustav Wolfers was born 13 August 1910 to Hugo Wolfers (1875-1941) and Olga Wolfers (nee Oppenheimer) (1885-1941). Gustav was the second of four siblings; Heinz, Alice and Ellen. Alice passed away in 1932 from Polio.
With experience working in his family' s successful textile firm, Gustav attended the Grone commercial school where he obtained an apprenticeship in the textile industry. From this apprenticeship, he was able to start his own business in 1932 as a sales representative and textile wholesaler. However, after boycotting calls in 1933 by the Nazi Party, Gustav' s business declined and he was forced to look to other skills and professions for work. German-Israelite Hamburg programs were introduced for youth to gain the skills required for successful immigration. From 1935, he retrained as a carpenter under the direction of Mr Jacob Blanari. An amateur photographer, Gustav practised his photography on the streets of Hamburg, at synagogues and at various Jewish youth exhibitions until 1937. From about 1935, his photographs were published in various Jewish Hamburg publications and he aspired to continue his career upon his emigration.
After 1933, Gustav made numerous unsuccessful attempts to emigrate from Germany. He met Grete Abrahamssohn at a Hamburg Jewish ball in 1934. With new antisemitic measures introduced, the couple saw no future for young Jewish people in Germany. They started English, Spanish and French lessons to allow for a smooth transition upon emigration. It was through one of these immigration applications that Gustav proposed marriage to Grete. Grete recalls him completing the form and asking ' Shall I fill in married?' Their wedding took place on 3 October 1937 in Bornplatz Synagogue (destroyed during Kristallnacht) in Hamburg. The couple escaped Hamburg to Australia during their honeymoon in October 1937, travelling via Holland to visit Grete' s sister, Else Grossmeyer and brother, Norbert Abrahamssohn.
The Wolfers arrived in Sydney on 2 December 1937 aboard the steamship ORAMA. Although promised a permanent job on arrival, Gustav was unemployed by his second day. After this he struggled to find permanent work, working intermittently as a cabinet maker. Grete supported them, forced to work as a cleaner for three months before gaining work as a stenographer and typist. To supplement their income, Gustav used his photography skills and camera brought from Germany to photograph houses within their local neighbourhood, Haberfield and sell them back to the homeowners. According to Grete, Gustav' s photography as well as the couples understanding of languages caused them to come under suspicion. During the war they were labelled as enemy aliens, until their naturalisation as Australian citizens in 1944.
The couple eventually settled in Gordon, New South Wales and had three children; Edward, Norma and Howard. Gustav continued to work as a cabinet-maker and shop fitter before he passed away on 7 August 1982 at the age of 71. Grete passed away on 19 January 2004, aged 91.
Gustav' s parents Hugo and Olga Wolfers were deported to Riga ghetto on 6 December 1941. The particular circumstances and date of their death are unknown. Hugo and Olga had made plans to reunite in Australia with Gustav and Grete, but were unable to leave after war was declared. Heinz Wolfers suffered from schizophrenia and was institutionalised in 1935. He died due to the consequences of pulmonary tuberculosis on 3 May 1940. This was likely due to the poor nursing care and neglect, then common to many Jewish patients. Gustav never spoke of him.
Ellen Berg (nee Wolfers) was unable to undertake her preferred study due to antisemitic laws but was able to immigrate to England in February 1939 working in child care. Ellen passed away aged 94 in England in 2014.
مكان الإنتاجGermany
التاريخ circa 1937
الموضوعimmigration, establishing new life
اسم الكائنnewsletters
مادةpaper
الأبعاد
- width: 235.00 mm
height: 313.00 mm
اللغة
- German '... Everything in this exhibition was done by young people, and this alone reveals the strength, ideas and idealism that live in the Jewish youth. The exhibition is of a local nature, but its significance reaches far beyond Hamburg and is a symptom of what is alive in Jewish youth in Germany and in Jewish youth in the world in general in Poland and in Erez Israel. Everywhere this youth is in the front line, it is not despondent and not despondent, because it has a definite goal in life, as if it had, to use Buber's words, to determine its own destiny.
In particular, the speaker emphasized the attachment of the Jewish youth to Palestine, which he hoped Providence would not allow to come to nothing. He was concerned about the fate of the unorganized Jewish youth, who had to be educated and won over for the living Judaism. If this exhibition contributes to a certain extent to the fact that the hitherto unorganized Jewish youth joins the youth alliances and thus awakens to a Jewish will to live, of which the exhibition here gives evidence, then a part of what it aims at has been achieved... The exhibition testifies to a high sense of responsibility and to the willingness of the Jewish youth to translate responsibility into action. This readiness is shown in the redeployment, in the emigration, in the pioneering work that the Jewish youth is doing in Erez Israel... The living space for the Jewish youth has become narrower, but they are struggling to find their way out of the narrowness and into freedom. The exhibition shows how they are struggling. This is the way the National Committee and the Jewish youth want to go; they call on all young people to cooperate... The exhibition shows Hamburg's youth work in a comprehensive form, things that are new to many visitors, things that will delight anyone who thinks and feels with the youth. But above all, they will understand the tremendous achievement behind the numbers, words and images. Anyone who has seen the exhibition in the making will know the energy and love, the energy and the hard work that went into it...'
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Howard Wolfers
In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for supporting this archival project.