Salomon Windmuller collection

Salomon Windmuller (1886-1954) was born in Beckum, near Dortmund, Germany, to Philipp and Sophie (Reingenheim) Windmuller. He fought in World War II, married Berta (Bertha) Kahn in 1922, and had two sons. He took over the ownership and management of his mother-in-law's dry goods store in Dortmund. He was jailed with his older son for several days following Kristallnacht and forced to sell his store. He placed his older son on a Kindertransport to Holland in December 1938. The family sailed to Cuba on the MS St. Louis in May 1939, was returned to Europe, and disembarked in France, where he was largely interned in French camps. In early 1942 the family traveled from Marseille via Casablanca and Jamaica to the United States, settling in Champaign, Illinois. His father and three older sisters perished in the Holocaust. Copyright Holder: Ms. Ruth H. Windmuller The Salomon Windmuller papers document Windmuller’s life in Germany, internment in France, and immigration to the United States and consist of a school certificate, World War I commendation, Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten membership card, American immigration quota number, tax office clearance certificate, internment camp release certificate, transit pass, request for leave from the Gurs concentration camp, and an identification card renewal receipt as well as photocopies of a safe passage certificate, of a letter from the American Consulate in Marseille, and of a telegram confirming that the Windmuller family had received their American visas.