We need your help in locating Jewish refugees who came to San Francisco in the late 1930s and 1940 and their descendants. As restrictions tightened against Jewish people under Nazi rule in Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, several hundred Jews applied for entrance to the United States. They had the good fortune to have relatives and sponsors in the U.S. After traveling across Russia to China and Japan, they boarded ships for San Francisco. Dozens of families and individuals ended up at the Angel Island Immigration Station, underwent medical inspection and were detained for weeks because they did not have sufficient funds to reach their eventual destinations.
Erika Lee and Judy Yung recounted the perilous journeys of Alice Edelstein, Alfred and Klara Marill, Hans Singer and Isaak Adler in Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America. Recently, AIISF interviewed Eva Schott Berek, Lotte Loebl Frank, and Harry Gluckman, whose stories are posted at www.aiisf.org/immigrant-voices.
The database you see below was compiled by volunteers who reviewed files at the National Archives in San Bruno, California. Please contact AIISF by writing to info@aiisf.org or call 415 262.4429 if you recognize any of the individuals listed below. We would like to interview the descendants in order to get the full story on these brave and fortunate people who fled the Nazi regime. Most of these refugees lost their entire families in the Holocaust. Their stories remind us of that genocide must never be allowed to happen again to any group of people. This database also contains names and short profiles of Jewish refugees who came to Angel Island prior to 1939. After 1915, large numbers of Jews from Russia, Poland, and Lithuania. Many of them were men who had left their homelands to avoid military conscription. Families also fled because of anti-Jewish violence. Many families were able to enter the United States with the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
photos: Eva Schott Berek’s passport; Lotte Loeble Frank’s parents; Harry Gluckman’s father
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15460/02-9 |
Gavrilin, Mickail |
M |
Russia |
1887 |
08/01/1916 |
Matsonia |
unknown |
Arrived at Honolulu on S.S. Mongolia from Kobe on 05/07/1910 |
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14782/05-7 |
Gertsen, Boris |
M |
Russia |
1896 |
10/30/1915 |
Panama Maru |
6 days |
Electrician; Literate; Came via Yokohama to avoid conscription; Mother paid passage; Cousin (Manassi Gollier) in SF; Excluded as LPC; Witness (Manassi Gollier) willing to provide him with work and training in shoemaking; Admitted 11/05/1915 |
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35216/08-2 |
Gertz, Berkovitch |
M |
Russia |
71 years old |
05/29/1935 |
Asama Maru |
3 days |
Joining daughter in Calistoga, admitted 6/1/35 |
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14676/008-05 |
Giller, Motel |
M |
Russia |
1892 |
09/20/1915 |
Chiyo Maru |
2 days |
Merchant; Literate; Has $13; passage paid by friend (Charles Stein) in NY; Admitted permanently |
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22639/18-1 |
Goldenberg, Isaac |
M |
|
53 yrs |
10/9/1923 |
Lincoln |
3 weeks |
British Nationality; Hotel keeper; Traveled with friend (Herman Carl Zimmerman); Has $1,750 and paid own passage; Will join wife in Chicago for temp visit of 6 months; Excluded for being illiterate; Appeals; Affidavit from nephew Fred Levy in Chicago assuring support; Case reopened because applicant demonstrated some reading knowledge of Yiddish; Admitted 10/27/1923. |
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37491/01-14 |
Goldman, Bianka |
F |
Poland |
55 yrs old |
8/18/1937 |
Vancouver |
6 days |
Citizen of Germany; Literate; Came via Germany to cousin (Isaac Friedman) for permanent residence; Excluded because of medical condition -- breast amputation and arterial hypertension -- and as LPC; Admitted 08/24/1937on $500 public charge bond |
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39638/11-8 |
Goldwajg, Abram Hersch |
M |
Poland |
43 yrs old |
10/27/1939 |
Asama Masu |
3 days |
Musician; Literate; Came via Harbin, China; Has $315 and paid own passage; To join brother (Nathan Goldwajg) in NYC for permanent residence; Admitted. |
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16243/16-1 |
Gondis, Clara |
F |
Russia |
1871 |
06/07/1917 |
Siberia Maru |
3 weeks |
Seamstress; aunt in NY; Promised job in SF by Armenian suspected by Board to have ulterior motives; Excluded as LPC; Appeals; Assisted by Traveler's Aid |
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14835/04-12 |
Granow, Haim |
M |
Russia |
1880 |
11/27/1915 |
Seattle Maru |
7 days |
Wanted to avoid conscription; Wood chopper; Literate; Father paid passage; Cousin (Kyap Altshuler) in SF; Has $3.50; Cousin (Herman Altshuler) called to witness; Excluded as LPC; HIAS request case be reopened with new evidence of a railroad ticket to NY; Outcome unclear |
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16551/03-15 |
Graudin, Austra |
F |
Russia |
1899 |
09/19/1917 |
Vondel |
1 mo |
Dressmaker and music teacher from Riga, Latvia; No money; Going to brother-in-law in Utah; Sister caught as stowaway and detained in Honolulu; Fellow passenger Hilda Tambert acts as interpreter and witness--willing to take care of her until sister arrives; Admitted under care of Tambert |
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15437/23-3 |
Green, Bernard |
M |
Turkey |
1873 |
07/24/1916 |
China |
unknown |
Tailor; Real name Greenberg; Excluded as LPC; HIAS gets case reopened; Witnesses called (Albert Bernard Rosenfeld and Mrs. Vera Zimmerman) who knew applicant in Shanghai; Outcome unknown |
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12505/08-01 |
Greenberg, Samuel |
M |
Russia |
1885 |
02/04/1913 |
Mongolia |
2 days |
Goldsmith and watchmaker; Excluded as LPC, Has $18, from Warsaw o Kobe ($64) to SF because Umak, Russia, is closer to SF; Mother and brother in NY; Clubfoot deferred & admitted |
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14650/07-12 |
Greenfield, Banick |
M |
Russia |
1888 |
09/09/1915 |
Moana |
unknown |
Cabinet maker; Literate; Paid own passage; Admitted |
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15153/39-23 |
Greenstein, Klaim-Zrul |
M |
Russia |
1889 |
04/10/1916 |
Shinyo Maru |
unknown |
Aka Mikel Giller; Merchant & tailor; Has $15; No relatives in US; Wanted to escape military service; Excluded as LPC; Traube of HIAS appeals (signed by Wolff 4/28) |
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14390/23-07 |
Grozowsky, Boruh |
M |
Russia |
1896 |
06/01/1915 |
Mongolia |
17 days |
Farmer; Literate; Came via Kobe; $28 and paid own passage; Uncle (Abram Krigel) in Kansas City; Wanted to avoid conscription; Excluded as LPC; Appeal by Lucius L. Solomons; Outcome unclear. |
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39868/11-2 |
Guensberg/Ginsberg, Rosa Sara |
F |
Austria |
18 yrs |
03/07/1940 |
Asama Maru |
3 weeks |
Inspectors noted that Rosa, a Austrian Jew, was fairly well educated but was initially detained because she had too little cash to travel to family in Chicago or New York. She was finally allowed to land after her aunt Helen sent her money. |
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14622/18-9 |
Gurewitch, Sholom |
M |
Russia |
1891 |
08/30/1915 |
Persia |
6 weeks |
Housepainter from Warsaw; Made way to Harbin; Left to evade military service; Cousins in NY; Excluded as LPC; Traube introduce guarantor S.J. Polin denied; 10/11/15 letter about transportation money to Chicago; case reopened |
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40218/07-1 |
Haase, Herbert Israel |
M |
Poland |
1909 |
8/13/1940 |
Nitta Maru |
1 day |
German citizen; Salesman; Literate; Came via Shanghai, China; Has $49 and cousin (Charles Melvoin) paid passage; To join wife (Edith Haase) in Wilmette, IL for permanent residence; German passport with quota immig visa issued from American Consul in Shanghai, China; Admitted 08/13/1940; Herbert Israel Haase travel ticket for the S.S. Nitta |
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40085/11-2 |
Hacker, Max |
M |
Germany |
1905 |
06/18/1940 |
Asama Maru |
3 months |
Max was 35 years old when he arrived at Angel Island on June 16, 1940. He was born in Ritzing, Germany and was initially destined to join his friend Joseph Friedrich in New York. Upon arrival, he was denied entry due to his qualification as a person likely to become a public charge. He was held until Sept. 14, 1940 when a $500 bond was posted on his behalf by Morris Mandl and his wife Melvin Mandl, a relative and a consulting engineer living in Passiac, New Jersey. After the bond was posted, Max settled in San Francisco taking a job as a waiter at Bunny's Restaurant on Market Street as of Sept 9, 1941. On Mar 31, 1942, Melvin Mendl wrote a letter informing the Dept of Justice that Max had joined the US army at Sheppard Field, Texas. |
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15189/04-9 |
Haitevich, Abram |
M |
Russia |
1891 |
04/25/1916 |
Anyo Maru |
3 days |
Totally blind, Class B; musician; Has 500 roubles and $14 with brother David, bookkeeper; 1 mo. from Harbin to Mukden to Yokohama; Uncle in Philadelphia; Excluded as LPC because of blindness; Brother excluded as accompanying alien (1907 Act); Appeals. |
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