Sondheimer Moritz
Sondheimer Moritz received transit visa no. 1319 at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas on 6 August 1940. The register records manufacturer, aged 45.
Documents
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What the register records
- Nationality as recorded
- German
- Age in 1940
- 45
- Occupation
- Manufacturer
- Family, per the Kitade-Bluman list
- father of #1320, child Mark/Carl Max (14)
The journey
Reached Japan; reached Shanghai; registered in Kobe for USA.
What is known
The Sondheimer family, German Jews who fled Nazi Germany to Kaunas, Lithuania in 1934, were among the few non-Polish recipients of Sugihara visas. After the Soviet takeover in 1940, they obtained German passports, a Curacao visa from Dutch consul Zwartendijk, and Japanese transit visas from Sugihara. In February 1941 they traveled via Moscow on the Trans-Siberian railroad to Vladivostok (where their possessions were confiscated), then to Japan (Yokohama), and were later deported to Shanghai. After the war, Hanni married an American soldier and immigrated to Iowa in 1946, with her family following to Los Angeles in 1947.
German passport stamped with visas to Japan and Caracao issued to Moritz Sondheimer by the German Consulate in Kaunas. German Jews were commonly required to add "Israel" to their names if male, and "Sara" if female. Jewish passports were further distinguished by a "J," signifying "Jude" (Jew), stamped in red on the first page. Hanni Lori Sondheimer is the daughter of Moritz and Setty Sondheimer. She was born on October 5, 1923 in Berlin, Germany and has a younger brother, Karl. In 1934, the family fled Nazi Germany and moved to Kaunas, Lithuania. Moritz had owned a leather goods store in Berlin, and in Kaunas he opened a small plastics factory which manufactured combs and buttons. He help…
The Sondheimers were among the few recipients of Sugihara visas who were not Polish citizens. Hanni was sent first to the Dutch Consul, Zwartendijk to get a final visa to Curacao and then to the Japanese consulate to apply for Japanese transit visas for the family. These ice skates were among the few personal belongings Hanni Sondheimer took with her on her journey from Kaunas to Shanghai. The family went to Moscow and traveled on the Trans-Siberian railroad in relative luxury. However, all their possessions were confiscated in Vladivostok.
Where this comes from
- JDC Shanghai migration file: SONDHEIMER Setty
JDC Archives, New York collection AR3344, 'Complete Shanghai Migration Files' (NY_AR3344_00014), page 136: SONDHEIMER Moritz, file no. 3330. Match: register No.1319 'Zongejmer Moritz' (repaired: Sondheimer Moritz), and the register independently records this person as reaching Shanghai. Both name pa - JDC Archives, New York — Shanghai Migration Files, box index (AR 33/44, file 00014): the alphabetical index to the JDC's Shanghai emigration case files, 1946-1950 — some 2,640 case files covering about 5,400 persons, each family under on…
JDC Shanghai Migration Files, case file no. 3330 — an emigration case file opened for the family in Shanghai after the war; the file itself can be requested from the JDC Archives - Oral history interview with Hanni Vogelweid (née Sondheimer) — USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 36950. Catalogue: born Oct 5 1923, Berlin (Prussia, Germany); born Berlin 5 Oct 1923; p… — the interviewee may be living
USC Shoah Foundation VHA interview 36950: Hanni Vogelweid (née Sondheimer) — her father Moritz — gave a testimony (catalogue: born Oct 5 1923, Berlin (Prussia, Germany)); born Berlin 5 Oct 1923; parents Moritz and Malchen (Setty) Sondheimer, Nos.1319/1317 - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- USHMM: German passport stamped with visas to Japan and Caracao issued to Moritz Sondheimer by the German Consulate in Kaunas.
- USHMM: German passport stamped with transit and destination visas to Japan and Curaçao issued to Moritz Sondheimer by the Germa
- USHMM: German passport issued to Moritz Sondheimer by the German Consulate in Kaunas.
- USHMM: Page of the passport Moritz Sondheimer's passport issued by the German Consulate in Kaunas.
- USHMM: Stamps on a German passport issued to Moritz Sondheimer by the German Consulate in Kaunas.
- USHMM: Page from the German passport issued to Moritz Sondheimer by the German Consulate in Kaunas.
- Oral history interview with Hanni Vogelweid (née Sondheimer) — USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 36950. Catalogue: born Oct 5 1923, Berlin (Prussia, Germany); born Berlin 5 Oct 1923; p… — the interviewee may be living
- Catalogue still for the oral history of Hanni Vogelweid (née Sondheimer) — USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 36950 (the archive's public catalogue frame, 352x240); links to the testimony at vha.usc.edu/testimony/36950