Special Collections & Archives collaborated with the Baum family descendants and Dr. Trachtenberg in 2021, to accept and digitize the Kurt Baum letters. While traveling in Europe, Dr. Trachtenberg posted the following on Instagram (reprinted with his permission):

“Josef and Marie Baum were a Jewish couple who ran a cattle dealing business in #Bamberg, Germany. As the Nazi regime made life increasingly untenable for Jewish youth, they sent their only child, 17-year-old Kurt, to safety in America in August 1937.

Marie tragically died in March 1938 from an infection, likely unable to find a doctor willing to treat her because she was Jewish. Josef remained trapped in Germany as emigration became increasingly impossible. On November 27, 1941, Josef was deported on a train to the #Jungfernhof camp near #Riga, Latvia, where he perished with most of the 1,107 Jews on that transport.

Kurt struggled to adjust to life in pre-war America. He served in WWII, and even returned to Bamberg after the war searching for traces of his family. He was prevented from entering his family home, which had been turned over to a member of the Nazi Party. A long legal challenge to reclaim the property was unsuccessful.

He kept his parents’ letters his entire life but never spoke of them–the memories were too painful to share. Our book on the letters (now held at @zsrspecial) and the lives of the Baum family is currently in preparation.

Last year, these #Stolpersteine were laid in their honor.”

The Stolpersteine, overseen by the World Jewish Congress are stumbling stones, commemorating a victim, or multiple victims, of the Holocaust outside their last place of residence.