Jewish emigration to the USA during WWII

[Revolution]

Hi

A cousin of mines husband emigrated to the USA during WWII. I have his emigration record.

Ludwig Max Levy arrived 13 August 1940 in Los Angels from Yokohama, Japan on the Nitta Maru. The person who he knew in the USA was Paul Israel. Arriving on the same boat was Irene Sara Levy listed as a wife, also from Hamburg and she stated her uncle Paul Israel from Newark, New Jersey was who she was going to stay with/knew. Her passage was paid by her uncle.

Paul Joseph Israel who married Selma Levy on 3 May 1912 in hamburg, Germany. Paul was born 19 June 1868 and Selma was born 8 Feb 1882. Pauls parents were Simon Israel and Johanna Joseph. Selmas parents were Eduard Levy and Dorothea Margaretha Elizabeth Gosch. Paul and Selma arrived on 25 Sep 1937 on the Statendam. Selma said she had a sister in Germany named Anna Wurst and her son in the USA named Heinz Israel. Curiously on board there was a 31 year old male named Heinz Levy who said he was a teacher. Heinz Israel aka Hanns Heinz Israel also known as Peter Straaton was born 1915 in hamburg Germany.

Ludwig Max Levy was able to stay in the USA. He joined the US army in 1942 after applying submitting a naturalisation declaration in 1941. In that document he states his wife is still in Germany. In 1944 there was another naturalisation petition all linking the three documents stating his wifes name was Irene. In 1946 he marries Gerda Friedman and had one child who I have talked with. That child decided not to have children because he didnt want to bring them into a world like ours.

My problem is either Ive made some serious linking errors or Irene was deported or went back to Germany because on 25 October 1941 she was deported from Hamburg, Germany to the Lodz ghetto and on 25 April 1942 was murdered at the Chelmo death camp. Interestingly it appears her mother was also sent to Chelmo.

I have wondered if she was deported from the USA as some other Jews were but her husband was not or she voluntarily went home not knowing about the horrors to come

[JustinL]

Hello,

You have slightly misinterpreted the information on the passenger lists.

Max Ludwig Israel Levy is listed as the passenger on the manifest (see image http://www.rootschat.com/links/01qoc/)

Irene Sara Levy of Isetrasse 83, Hamburg was not a passenger, she was recorded as his "nearest relative in country from whence alien came" (see image https://www.rootschat.com/links/01qod/)

Irene remained in Hamburg, presumably not wishing to abandon her aged, widowed mother.

Paul Israel was the uncle of Max Ludwig Levy, and it was his widowed sister, Anna wife of Leopold Elieser Wurst, who was living at Isestrasse 19, Hamburg.

See here also https://www.rootschat.com/links/01qoe/

Here is also a link to the original deportation list http://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/OT411025-23.jpg. Irene is number 545; her mother is on the following page.

Coincidentally, my surname is Levy, and my Levy ancestors moved to Hamburg in 1868.

A further sad and gruesome coincidence is that Anna Wurst was deported to Riga (Jungfernhof) on 6 Dec 1941 on the same train as one of my grandfather's cousins. If she didn't succumb to the cold and appalling conditions in the camp, then she was probably murdered (as were my relatives) in the so-called Bikernieki Forest Massacre on 26 Mar 1942.

Take care, Justin

[Revolution]

Many many thanks for this Justin and for clarifying the shipping records.

Its given me some amazing insight into the final days of my cousins and their families.