"Washington, King, Seattle, Passenger Lists, 1890-1957", FamilySearch — entry for Siegfried Hopfer, 1940. Digitised from NARA microfilm publication M1383, roll 256, "Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at Seattle, Washington, 18… Seattle, admitted 22 August 1940, S.S. Hie Maru sailing from Kobe. Age 25, single, student, German, born Rexingen, Germany; last permanent residence Kedainiai, Lithuania; US immigration visa issued at Kaunas, 10 May 1940. Bound for New York City to join his brother at 600 W. 183rd St. — the clerk's hand is unclear on the given name, and his own draft card names him Irving Hopfer Nearest relative left behind: a friend, Leo Adler, Kedainiai. 5ft 5in, fair, black hair, brown eyes. The friend he named as his nearest connection in the country he was leaving — Leo Adler of Kedainiai — is himself entry No. 678: a fellow German student of the Mir Yeshiva, which had fled to that town. Two lines of the register, joined by a question an American official asked at the dockside.
JDC Transmigration Bureau card index — the entry for Siegfried Hopfer. The Bureau was the office through which relatives in America paid refugees' fares, and its index runs to some 66,400 records, free to search, with the card images att… The Transmigration Bureau was set up by the Joint Distribution Committee in New York to take deposits from friends and relatives in America towards the fare of someone trying to get out of Europe. A card in his name means somebody on this side paid, or offered to. His brother was already in New York, at 600 W. 183rd Street. The card as catalogued gives a name and a number and no age, so it is held as corroboration and not as the thing that identifies him — the arrival manifest does that.
"Tompkins, New York, United States records", images, FamilySearch — image 503 of 1295; New York. Supreme Court (Tompkins County), Petitions for naturalization vol. 13, petition no. 1556. Image Group Number 005394189 His own sworn petition for naturalization, filed at the Supreme Court in Ithaca. It states, in one document, everything the archive had assembled from four others: born 21 November 1914 at Rexingen, Wurttemberg; last place of foreign residence Kedainiai, Lithuania; emigrated to the United States from Kobe, Japan; lawful entry for permanent residence at Seattle, Washington on 22 August 1940 aboard the SS Hie Maru. He is 29, a teaching assistant, living at 232 Linden Avenue, Ithaca. He married Hannah Pollak on 23 August 1942 at New York; she was born at Budapest on 8 April 1923, came to America on 9 September 1925 and became a citizen through her father, Aladar Pollak. No children. Five feet four, 130 pounds, brown eyes, brown hair, a scar on a finger of the left hand. He asks that his name be changed to Samuel Hopfer.
The numbered Sugihara visa list, searchable text — the register of the visas issued at Kaunas, transcribed and reconciled by Dr George Bluman (University of British Columbia) and the researcher and author Akira Kitade. This is the text b…