Philipp Manes (1875-1944) Postcard from Berlin to Helmut Bradt in Zurich

Authors

Object ID

2019.2.77

Object Name

Postcard

Date

4-16-1942

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Postcard stamped with "Philip Manes" in blue ink in upper left corner, includes red vertical line in center, red Nazi emblem stamped on left side, and red postage with man's face on right side. Back includes "Berlin am 26. 4 42" written in black ink in top center.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Philipp Manes was a German Jew from Berlin. He joined his father’s fur trading concern, married, and had four children. He served for Germany in WWI with distinction and won the Iron Cross.

After Kristallnacht Manes dissolved the fur business. He remained in Germany even as Nazi policy toward Jews became increasingly more restrictive. His four children, on the other hand, left the country.

In July 1942, Manes was notified that he and he wife Gertrud were to be deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. At Theresienstadt, Manes was in charge of the ghetto orientation service, as well as the “Manes Group” which helped stage cultural, musical, and educational events. He wrote about his experiences and life in the ghetto generally, including accounts of the implacable transports. His diary of his experiences and observations of life in Theresienstadt has been published under the title As If It Were Life. Manes and his wife Gertrude were transported to Auschwitz from Theresienstadt, where they perished.

This postcard was written by Manes just months before he and Gertrud were deported to Theresienstadt. Helmut Bradt was a young, highly regarded professor of atomic physics from Berlin who was able to leave Germany with the help of Albert Einstein.

Dimensions

4 x 6"

Keywords

Philipp Manes, Helmut Bradt, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Albert Einstein

Subcollection

Ghettos

Recommended Citation

"Philipp Manes (1875-1944) Postcard from Berlin to Helmut Bradt in Zurich" (1942). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.77.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1454