Werner Goldsmith papers

Werner Goldsmith was born in Erfurt, Germany, on Nov. 13, 1928. Werner's father, a textile salesman, died in 1938, and Werner and his mother moved to Berlin, Germany. Werner's mother placed him in the Auerbach orphanage for safety while she lived with another Jewish woman in West Berlin. Werner's mother arranged for him to be placed on a transport to France, and she, as a widow, was able to travel to England. In 1939, Werner was sent to France with approximately 39 other children. The transport arrived in Cassis, France, near Paris. From the summer of 1939 until the invasion of France in 1940, the children lived in the home of a French count. In 1940, the count was taken prisoner in Germany, and the Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE) cared for the children. After an unsuccessful attempt to flee to southern France, the children were separated and placed in different shelters. Werner was sent to the Rothschild orphanage in Paris and remained there for nine months. In the spring of 1941, the OSE sent Werner to Marseilles, France. Since he had relatives in the United States, Werner received an emergency visa in Sept. 1941and traveled from Marseilles to Portugal. He embarked on a Portuguese freighter and sailed to the United States. He lived in Jewish foster homes until he was reunited with his mother in 1946. The collection contains photographs and documents. The first photograph was taken in Berlin, Germany, and depicts Werner Goldsmith at age 10. A few months after this photograph was taken, Werner Goldsmith departed for France with a group of Jewish children. Other papers contain copies of six black and white photographs taken in the 1930s and 1940s and 12 original photographs taken in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as an affidavit from the Consulate of the United States at Marseille, France, and a telegram dated May 25, 1946, to Werner Goldsmith from his mother. The photographs depict Erfurt, Germany, children in France with Oeuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE), the Rothschild orphanage, and the graves of Werner Goldsmith's grandparents and father.