Natalie Baum collection

Natalie Baum was born as Natalie “Nelly” Tisch on September 2, 1919 in Vienna, Austria. Her father, Jakub Tisch was born in Lvov on January 15, 1880 and owned a shoe factory in Vienna. Nelly’s mother, Wanda Wittie Neumann, was born in Stanislawów, Poland. Nelly’s older brother, Leopold, was born in Lvov in 1908 and soon after his birth the Tisch family moved to Vienna. On March 24, 1938, two weeks after the Nazi Germany annexed Austria; Nelly left Vienna for Haslev in the Seeland province in Denmark. She was a member of a “Hachshara” group preparing for immigration to Palestine. Her parents and her brother left Vienna in early 1939 and settled in Antwerp, Belgium hoping to immigrate to the United States. In May 1939 Leo Tisch traveled to England and later to Australia. On October 30, 1942 Jakub and Wittie Tisch were deported from Antwerp to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they perished on arrival. In October 1943, Natalie and her “Hachalutz” group fled to Sweden with the help of the Danish resistance. Nelly Tisch met and married a German Jew and they settled in Malmo, Sweden. The Natalie Baum collection consists of photographs of the Tisch family in Vienna, Austria and Antwerp, Belgium prior to their deportation and correspondence written by Jakub Tisch and Wittie Tisch in Antwerp, Belgium, to their daughter, Natalie Tisch in Denmark, and their son Leo Tisch in Austria, 1939-1942. Also included are documents relating to Jakub and Wittie Tisch’s deportation; a birth certificate of Natalie Tisch; correspondence with the US Embassy in Copenhagen relating to Natalie’s efforts to immigrate to the United States; money transfers from her parents in Antwerp to Nelly in Denmark; an affidavit on behalf of Natalie Tisch; receipt for burial of Berta Tisch and memorial for Jakob and Wittie Tisch at the Vienna Jewish cemetery (1958).