Heidemann family - Letters

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0.15 metres of textual material (1 box) - manuscript and typescript. The manuscript letters were copied onto preservation microfilm. Microfilm: CY 3984, frames 1-513 (MLMSS 6679/1-6). Sally Bernstein (1868-ca 1944) and Rosa Bernstein, nee Petzal (1864-1942), and their three children Meta (1895-1966), Fritz (1900-ca 1944) and Erich (1905-2003) were a German Jewish family living in Berlin during the 1920s and 1930s. In September 1938, Meta, her husband Adolf (Dolf) Heidemann and their two children, Egon (1921-1971) and Gisela (b. 1925), having secured permits and visas, left Germany and travelled to Australia. They arrived on 10 November, stateless refugees. The letters in this collection begin with the departure of Meta and her family for Australia. Sally and Rosa, Fritz and Lotte, and Erich until his own departure, all make contributions to letters written to the Heidemann family in Sydney. The letters contain routine family news as well as details about the worsening situation in Germany, the departure of family and friends seeking safe haven outside Germany, comments about the Heidemann family's life in Sydney, and the constant struggle to secure permits for the remainder of the family to leave Germany.