Thanks to Viviane at the McClure Archives at UCM for access to these stories.
McClure Archives Info
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From Vienna Austria to Warrensburg, MO, Regina Stassel, Bertha Weinberg, Bertha Beller,
Gary Karpel, Henriette Weinberg, Alex Beller 1939-40
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Brought together by Nazi's persecutions in Austria, six young Jewish refugees were students at Central Missouri State Teacher's College during, fall, winter and spring terms.
They Bertha and Henriette Weinberg, sisters, Alexander Beller, and his sister Bertha Beller, Regina Stassel and Gary Karppel. All were from Vienna but with the exception of the same family, had never met each other until they came here.
The six were sent here the national Jewish Welfare Center, which made the financial arrangements for them to attend school for nine months, with the intention of helping them equip themselves to find work and begin a new life in a new land. They were sent to the Middle West so that in the smaller cities they might become closely acquainted with the typical America way of life.
Gary Karpel and Alexander Beller are still in Warrensburg attending school. Regina Stassel went to Kansas City hoping to find work. The other three girls went to New York, Bertha Beller to join her parents.
Karpel, who originally wished to study medicine but has been forced to abandon the idea because of the finances, believes now he would like to go into chemistry. He hopes to find a job that will permit him to stay in Missouri and to bring his parents here, for the thinks they would like a Missouri small town. He intends to become an American citizen. Beller, who also once planned to study medicine, is undecided as to plans for the future. He would like to continue his studies and probably will attend college in New York, although he would like to go to the West Coast. He is completing high school work in the College Laboratory School.
Sedalia Bazoo Friday November 10, 1939, p. 6
Henriette Weinberg, 18, left, and her sister, Berta 20 are Jewish girls who used to live in Vienna but when Hitler came they had to move. They're attending Warrensburg State Teachers College under the guidance of Sarah Lyle Cordry of Sedalia, student counselor. Their parents are living in Belgium. The two girls were speakers at a meeting of the Rotary club here last week.
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| Henriette Weinberg and Berta Weinberg, Vienna Austria attended UMM-Warrensburg State Teacher's College to avoid the Nazi Regime. 1939 |
1 comment:
This post is a gift, I can't thank you enough for putting this online and transcribing the text so it can be more easily found.
I suppose I should thank Warrensburg, MO for taking in these kids, one of whom was my father and another was my aunt Bertha, and treating them with enough respect and hospitality that they could get on their feet and, at the least, learn English. Who they met, who they lived with, what their experience of the place was like, will have to be left to the imagination I guess. It is all news to me.
The kid "who also once planned to study medicine" but "is undecided as to plans for the future" became a doctor and also taught at the Columbia Psychoanalytic Institute. He died of cancer in 1975. There is an annual prize "in recognition of a significant scholarly study in the general area of psychoanalytic theory" awarded annually in his name. It is called "The Alexander Beller Award."
Many thanks again for posting this document.
-T. Beller
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