Title:

Helene Jacob papers, circa 1910-1996

Creator/Contributor:

Jacob, Helene, 1908-1996, creator

The collection includes immigration, citizenship, and identity documents from Austria, Poland, Germany, and the United States for Helene Jacob, her first husband, Mark Gutter, and other members of the Gutter and Kohn family. These documents date from the late 1910s through the early 1940s and show Helene's and Mark's movements in Poland and Austria before the rise of Hitler as well as after the Nazi invasion of Poland and Austria in 1938, when the couple became stateless. The collection includes a Nazi-issued Fremdenpass (passport for a foreigner or stateless person) dating to July 1939 for both Mark and Helene. The collection also includes materials documenting Helene Jacob's, Mark Gutter's, and Julius Jacob's pensions from the Austrian and German governments as well as Holocaust compensation and restitution. In addition, there are correspondence and other papers documenting Helene's life in Petaluma with Mark Gutter and Julius Jacob. Among these are notebooks of expenses (1945-1958) that document labor and supply costs for the family chicken ranch as well as personal contributions to local Jewish organizations and international Jewish relief funds. Photographs in the collection consist mainly of snapshots and portraits of Mark and Helene as well as unidentified Kohn and possibly Gutter family members, vacation snapshots from California and Nevada, and Mark Gutter's World War II army portraits and snapshots.

Date:

1910 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca -- e-au--- -- e-pl---

Jacob, Helene -- 1908-1996 -- Archives

Gutter, Mark -- 1896-1957

Jacob, Julius -- d. 1982

Poultry Growers Cooperative of Petaluma.

Jews -- Austria -- Vienna

World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Austria -- Vienna

World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Poland

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)

Jews -- Claims

Jews -- California -- Petaluma

Jewish women -- California -- Petaluma

Jewish farmers -- California -- Petaluma

Jews -- Europe, Eastern -- Migrations

Chicken industry -- California -- Petaluma

Petaluma (Calif.) -- Emigration and immigration

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.

Helene Jacob papers, BANC MSS 2012/146, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Helene Jacob (1908-1996) was born Helene Kohn in Vienna, Austria. She met her first husband, Mark Gutter (1896-1957), who was born Mojzezs Gutter in Sambor, Poland, in Vienna. With their marriage, Helene lost her Austrian citizenship and became a citizen of Poland. In 1938, many Polish Jews who had resided outside of Poland for more than five years, including Helene and Mark, were stripped of their Polish citizenship and became stateless. After some struggle, Helene and Mark managed to emigrate to the United States in the summer of 1939 to join her brother, Fritz Kohn (later Fred Kent), in Sonoma County, California. Mark and Helene started a chicken ranch in Petaluma and attempted, with Fred Kent's assistance, to helpother members of the Kohn and Gutter families escape from Nazi-occupied Europe. In 1943, Helene found work as a bookkeeper with the Poultry Growers Cooperative of Petaluma and became active in the local Jewish community. She also worked for the Poultry Producers' Association. After Mark Gutter's death in 1957, Helene moved to San Rafael and married Julius Jacob, a German-Jewish refugee.

In German, English, and Polish.

Type:

Citizenship papers.

Immigration records.

Letters.

Photographs.

2 cartons, 1 box, 1 oversize folder (2.9 linear feet)

English

German

pol

Origin:

California

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.