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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15701/03-11 |
Heyde, Margaretha |
F |
Russia |
1905 |
11/15/1916 |
Ecuador |
unknown |
Minor accompanied by parents (Theodore and Ida) and sister; Literate; Citizen of Germany; Admitted permanently |
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40932/13-10 to 12 |
Honigberg, Bronislaw |
M |
Poland |
20 yrs |
05/10/1941 |
Asama Maru |
5 days |
Bronislaw along with his family were detainied because a private company purchased their ship tickets for them. Officials noted that he looked like a typical student of his age. It is noted that he was a medical student. |
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40932/13-10 to 12 |
Honigberg, Rajzla Matla |
F |
Poland |
58 yrs |
05/10/1941 |
Asama Maru |
5 days |
Rajzla Matla was detained along with her family because of immigration officials questioned who purchased their ship tickets. Officials noted that she looked like a housewife who was protected from outside influences. |
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40932/13-10 to 12 |
Honigberg, Zelik |
M |
Russia |
61 yrs |
05/10/1941 |
Asama Maru |
5 days |
Zelik and his family was initially detained because their tickets were purchased by a private New York company which was suspicious. Also the they did not have additional tickets to take them to New York. They were able to prove that they had $15,000 deposited at a Chase Bank in New York and that the funds used by the company which was own by their friend Allen Gerdau were actually Zelik's money he had deposited with his friend. |
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14948/18-11 |
Hoslevsky, Izrail |
M |
Russia |
1894 |
01/14/1916 |
Nippon Maru |
unknown |
Clerk; Has $32.50 and paid own passage; Literate; Came through Yokohama to avoid conscription; Distant relations in MI; Excluded as LPC because afflicted with varicocele; HIAS request reopening of case -- $75 received from cousin in MI to pay for transportation; Outcome unclear |
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17546/23-1 |
Ivanoff, Andrew Nicolas |
M |
Russia |
1908 |
09/28/1918 |
Siberia Maru |
2 days |
SFChron article about 10-year-old twins joining their mother Mrs. N. Suvorin in LA; Family fled Petrograd to Tokyo when Bolsheviks took over city; Father (General Masoedoff) executed during war for political plotting; Boys left in Japan and separated from mother for 4 mos after mother became ill and decided to go to America 3/6/18 first; Boys acccomp by Lee Haygood, ret US Army officer; visaed by US consul in Yokohama; boys to be delivered to HIAS and transported to LA; mother danced with Imperial Ballet and now heads Dancing Academy in LA. |
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14725/32-24 |
Kane, Yuda |
M |
Russia |
1896 |
10/06/1915 |
Manchuria |
2 months |
Bookkeeper; Did not want to be a soldier; Born in Vedjapta, near Vinak, where fighting is; Came via Siberia and Japan; Traube gets Max Newan to offer job and bond; Excluded as LPC; Appeal by HIAS; Bonded 11/23/15; Later found to be working at drugstore instead of for Newman; Bond canceled 6/20/16. |
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14782/05-12 |
Kanei, Egeny |
M |
Russia |
1897 |
10/30/1915 |
Panama Maru |
2 weeks |
Bookkeeper; Literate; Entered via Yokohama, Has $50 and mother paid passage; Wanted to avoid conscription; Excluded as LPC; HIAS appeals; Admitted 11/19/1915 |
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14676/21-02 |
Kaplan, Samuel |
M |
Russia |
1895 |
09/20/1915 |
Chiyo Maru |
5 weeks |
Has acute vulgais--Class C; Sewing Machine Operator; Literate; Left hometown 3 mos ago for Harbin, Darien and Yokohama; Has $5 and paid own passage; Evaded military duty - obtained assumed name "Gamlyky Ber" to leave Russia; Paid 50 roubles for passport in Minsky to get to Harbin; Excluded as LPC; Witness (Emil Cohn) guaranteeds applicant employment; Admitted 10/27/1915 |
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15643/12-2 |
Kauk, Olga |
F |
Russia |
1910 |
10/19/1916 |
Persia Maru |
2 days |
Minor traveling with mother and brother to join father (Leopold Kauk) already in SF; Literate; No Money; Admitted |
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14390/23-13 |
Kesler, Isaak |
M |
Russia |
1885 |
06/01/1915 |
Mongolia |
1 month |
Tailor; Has $50; No work in Russia; Excluded as LPC; Aappeals; Ticket to Chicago; landed 7/2/15 |
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40021/03-18 |
Klein, Julius |
M |
Austria |
39 yrs |
5/18/1940 |
Tatuta Maru |
2 days |
Shirtmaker; Literate; Came via Shanghai, China; Has $7 and paid own passage; Coming to join cousin (Bertha Weissman Havello) in Brooklyn for permanent residence; German passport with immig visa; Affadavits of support from cousin (Bertha), cousins (Louis and Ruth Whitman), and uncle (Arnold Weissman); Admitted 05/20/1940 |
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14725/32-22 |
Knjajivsky, Asa |
M |
Russia |
1888 |
10/06/1915 |
Manchuria |
2 months |
German Jew; Changed name to Shaya Kaperman to avoid military duty; Grocery clerk; Has $2; Traube has Sugarman (Iron and Metal Works) offer manual labor job; Excluded as LPC; Admitted on bond for 6 mos; Works briefly for Sugarman and gets into junk business; Bond cancelled 7/25/16 |
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40253/5-1 & 2 |
Koenig, Friedrich |
M |
Germany |
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08/28/1940 |
Rakuyo Maru |
1 month |
An affidavit was written from Frederick's brother Adolph Koenig-King a nauturalized US citizen who was 67 years old and lives in New York. He wrote that he and his wife Marcia Wittenberg King is willing to support his brother and sister-in-law and has proof that he is earning a salary of $25 a week as a bookkeeper while his wife earns $2,500 a year as a social director at a hospital. |
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40253/5-1 & 2 |
Koenig, Sofie |
F |
Germany |
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08/28/1940 |
Rakuyo Maru |
1 month |
An affidavit was written from Frederick's brother Adolph Koenig-King a nauturalized US citizen who was 67 years old and lives in New York. He wrote that he and his wife Marcia Wittenberg King is willing to support his brother and sister-in-law and has proof that he is earning a salary of $25 a week as a bookkeeper while his wife earns $2,500 a year as a social director at a hospital. |
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40253/05-3 |
Koller, Etel |
F |
Russia |
41 yrs |
08/28/1940 |
Rakuyo Maru |
3 weeks |
German citizen; Housewife; Literate; Came via Vienna, Germany; $5 and passage paid by friend; Destined to cousin of husband (Barney Spitzer) in St. Louis, MO for permanent residence; German passport with quota immig visa; Witness called: Barry Spitzer, President of Merchants Loan & Finance Corp, who states applicant "is the wife of the son of a relative of my deceased mother"; Admitted 09/18/1940; Applicant will be supported by Spitzer and brother in law (Carl Toller) |
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40317/27-10 |
Koltai, Frida Sara |
F |
Austria |
1895 |
09/27/1940 |
SS President Coolidge |
3-1/2 months |
Frida was detained because her ticket was purchased by a the Quaker Society and the Jewish Committee (Copenhagen). At this time, it was seen as a violation of the 1917 immigration act which states that persons are not allowed admittance if their passage or tickets were paid by corporations, associations, societies, municipalities or foreign governments. But a member of the board disagreed witht the act becuase of the changing times with the war and that a lot of people are trying to save their countrymen. The council also noted a discrepency with her statement and her friend, Mrs. Kauffman's statement. She was later released after a friend's husband Mr. Frank Duveneck and the Society of Friends signed a $500 bond. |
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35506/05-1 |
Kupitsky, Arthur |
M |
Canada |
1898 |
08/21/1935 |
Chichibu Maru |
unknown |
Merchant; Literate; Canadian passport; Paid own passage; Destined for friend (Jacob Jacobsen) in NY for temp 30 day stay en route to China; Admitted temp for 30 days; NOTE: 1943 investigation into applicant and his family members about his Canadia birth/citizenship as well as verification he was born in Russia |
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30509/03-1 |
Lachmann, Vera |
F |
Russia |
1871 |
06/18/1931 |
Portland |
1 day |
Housewife; Literate; Passport issued by Soviet Union; Coming to join sons (Maurice And Abraham Lachman) in SF and Burlingamge for permanent residence; Both sons are chiropractors; Admitted 06/19/1931 |
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40415/15-1 |
Lambert, Joseph |
M |
Russia |
1907 |
11/13/1940 |
Tatsuta Maru |
1 day |
Hair Dresser; Literate; Came via Shanghai, China; Has $50 and paid own passage; Destined to cousin (Jacob Paul Boxer) in SF for permanent residence; Quota immig visa; Witness called: Jacob Boxer, who owns beauty shop businesses; Admitted 11/14/1940. |
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