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Inventory of the Martha Mondschein Bauer Papers, 1940-2001
Inventory of the Martha Mondschein Bauer Papers, 1940-2001
Descriptive Summary
| Abstract: | Correspondence, photographs, and memoirs of Martha Mondschein Bauer, a Jewish nurse who escaped Germany by becoming a volunteer nurse in England and the Dominican Republic. Included is correspondence regarding her brother and her husband's parents, photographs of Mondschein's and Bauer's family members, and her husband Felix Bauer's memoir. |
| Title: | Martha Mondschein Bauer papers |
| Creator: | Bauer, Martha Mondschein, 1915-2011 |
| Date(s): | 1940-2001 |
| Extent: | 0.25 linear feet (6 folders) |
| Repository: | Jewish Heritage Collection, Special Collections, College of Charleston Libraries 66 George Street Charleston, SC 29424 Phone: (843) 953-8016 Fax: (843) 953-6319 URL: http://archives.library.cofc.edu |
| Call Number: | Mss 1065-007 |
| Language of Material: | Materials in English, German, and Czech |
Biographical Note
Martha Mondschein Bauer was born on January 16, 1915, in Kassel, Germany. She received her training as a nurse at the Jewish Hospital in Cologne. In 1939, Bauer left Germany for England, where she worked as a nurse on a children's ward and learned English from her patients.
The United Kingdom ordered all enemy aliens to be interned in 1940, and Mondschein was deported to the Isle of Man and then moved to London, where she stayed during the London Blitz. She later agreed to go to the Dominican Republic, a neutral country, traveling on a ship protected by a naval convoy from England to the United States.
After a ten-day stay at Ellis Island, Mondschein obtained a transfer to the Dominican Republic and arrived in Sosúa, where she was located in a settlement of approximately 200 refugees. As a nurse, she worked with three European doctors to organize and equip a hospital. Shortly after arriving, she met Felix Bauer, a native of Vienna, Austria. They married on March 6, 1943. In October 1946, the Bauers moved to Due West, South Carolina, where Felix Bauer taught music and art at Erskine College until he retired in 1979; Martha Bauer worked as a nurse until her retirement in 1981.
Collection Overview
Correspondence, photographs, and memoirs of Martha Mondschein Bauer, a Jewish nurse who escaped Germany by becoming a volunteer nurse in England and the Dominican Republic. Included is correspondence regarding her brother and her husband's parents, photographs of Mondschein's and Bauer's family members, and her husband Felix Bauer's memoir. This memoir includes two other recollections, one of an unnamed sister-in-law of a close friend who was deported to the Risa ghetto and Kaiserwald concentration camp, and the other of Johann Zelenka, an Austrian friend conscripted into the German army.
Collection Arrangement
Materials are described at the folder level.
Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person, family, or organization, by topical subject, by place, and by types of material.Names
- Bauer, Martha Mondschein, 1915-2011
- Bauer, Felix, 1914-2006
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Holocaust survivors
- Jewish refugees--England
- Jewish refugees--Dominican Republic--Sosúa
- World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities
Places
- England
- Sosúa (Dominican Republic)
Types of Material
- Black-and-white negatives
- Black-and-white slides
- Correspondence
- Digital images
- Facsimiles (reproductions)
- Memoirs
- Photocopies
- Photographs
Related Resources
Related Material
Related materials in College of Charleston Special Collections include a curriculum package and resource guide for South Carolina voices: lessons from the Holocaust (Mss 1070, D804.3 .S34 1992). This documentary includes videotaped interviews with South Carolina Holocaust survivors, including Martha and Felix Bauer. Digital reproductions of photographs and correspondence available online in the Lowcountry Digital Library.
Inventory
Includes photocopies of Martha Bauer's German passport, brief biographies of Martha Bauer and Felix Bauer, and a photocopy of Felix Bauer's obituary.
Includes photocopies of a letter in German from Martha Bauer to her great-uncle in England, a telegraph and photocopies of Bauer's correspondence regarding her deceased brother, Rene Mondschein, and a telegraph and photocopies of letters in German and Czech regarding Felix Bauer's parents. Also includes Bauer's correspondence regarding the donation of her papers, which includes additional information about her family members.
Photographs of the Mondschein and Bauer families, including Mondschein's brother, sister, aunt, and uncle, as well as Bauer's parents.
Negatives, slides, and digital images on CD of photographs of the Mondschein and Bauer families.
Facsimiles and photocopies of photographs of the Mondschein and Bauer families.
Felix Bauer's memoir includes his recollection of events during 1914-1946, excerpts from his teaching experiences and work as a designer, and a discussion of his musical compositions. It also includes memoirs of two other people, the unnamed sister-in-law of a good friend who was deported to the Risa ghetto and the Kaiserwald concentration camp, both in Latvia; and Johann Zelenka, a Viennese friend who was conscripted into the German army in 1944 and taken as a British prisoner of war.
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for research.
Copyright Notice
The nature of the College of Charleston's archival holdings means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. Special Collections claims only physical ownership of most archival materials.
The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Martha Mondschein Bauer papers, College of Charleston Libraries, Charleston, SC, USA.
Acquisitions Information
Materials were donated in 2004 by Martha Mondschein Bauer.
Alternate Form of Materials
Digital reproductions of photographs and correspondence available online in the Lowcountry Digital Library.
Processing Information
Processed by Rebecca McClure, February 2011.
Encoded by Rebecca McClure, November 2011.
Reviewed and uploaded by Martha McTear, January 2012.
Funding from the Council on Library and Information Resources supported the processing of this collection and encoding of the finding aid.
