Helene Everly Collection, 1995-1996

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Summary

Creators:
Everly, Helene. African American Museum & Library at Oakland.
Abstract:
Helene Everly (b. 1928), Afro-German émigré who grew up in Nazi Germany, was born Helene Brell in Munich, Germany on March 18, 1928. The Helene Everly Collection consists of four audiocassettes containing oral history interviews with Helene Everly conducted by Robert L. Haynes, seven photographs depicting WWII scenes and portraits of Helene Everly and her cousin Max Brell, and copies of the article "A Black Woman's Experience in Hitler's Germany" by Nicole Atkinson.
Extent:
.25 linear foot (1 box)
Language:
Languages represented in the collection: English
Preferred citation:

Helene Everly Collection, MS 148, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The Helene Everly Collection consists of four audiocassettes containing oral history interviews with Helene Everly conducted by Robert L. Haynes, three photographs of portraits of Helene Everly and her cousin Max Brell, and copies of the two-part article "A Black Woman's Experience in Hitler's Germany." The collection is arranged in three series: Series I. Oral history interviews, Series II. Photographs, and Series III. A Black Woman's Experience in Hitler's Germany

Biographical / historical:

Helene Everly (b. 1928), Black German émigré who grew up in Nazi Germany, was born Helene Brell in Munich, Germany on March 18, 1928. Her mother Helene Brell met her father, who was from Cameroon, Africa, in 1927. Everly was raised by foster parents and her foster father was a union organizer and Social Democrat.

Everly was five years old when Adolph Hitler came to power. When she was eight or nine years old, Everly went to visit a former neighbor who lived across the street from the only vegetarian restaurant in Munich. Everly, who was with her foster mother at the time, recalled Hitler arriving to dine at the restaurant and catching a look "straight in the eye," saying "[h]e looked surprised because it was obvious that I was black. But that was all he did, was look. He just kept going."

During the war Everly remained with her family and was also sent for a year in the country as a nanny. Afterwards, as a teenager during the occupation, Everly encountered African American soldiers stationed in Munich and began to go out to G.I. clubs to socialize. As an English speaker, Everly would assist with interpreting. In April 1946, Everly graduated from high school and was approached to work as a secretary for a military unit performing clerical work. In the autumn of 1947 she met George Alan Everly, a Chicago-born musician and football player under temporary duty assignment, while working on a U.S. military base. In October of 1948 the couple was married.

Leaving Germany in December 1948, the couple arrived in New York. The couple spent 11 days at then segregated Camp Kilmar, in New Jersey, before going on to Chicago, Illinois. Everly’s first job was in an Illinois Bell building at a drugstore counter, and then later she became a maid at the Pershing Hotel. By 1954 she had started working at the hospital at the University of Illinois. Everly's mother came to live with and assist the family beginning in 1954 and together with her mother, Everly opened a neighborhood store. During this period, Everly also organized an interracial social organization for German war brides in Chicago.

During the 1960s, Everly worked at the University of Chicago, first as an acquisition clerk in the University of Chicago Library from 1960-1964, and then from 1964-1967 as administrative secretary to professor of urban sociology Donald J. Bogue. Dr. Bogue had founded Demography, the official journal of the Population Association of America (PAA), and Everly served as secretary during his tenure as President of the PAA. During this time, Dr. Bogue's work focused on programs to provide contraception to Chicago residents. Everly became aware of the beginning of civil rights actions and sit-ins on campus. She actively participated with various civil rights groups throughout the decade, including marching in the September 4, 1966, Cicero march during the Chicago Freedom Movement.

Divorcing her husband in 1969, Everly moved to Oakland, California, and worked as departmental secretary for the Bank of California, where she remained for nine years. She later got her real estate license and worked as an agent and property owner until her retirement in 1990.

Biographical notes compiled from oral history interviews and Nicole Atkinson's "A Black Woman's Experience in Hitler's Germany."

Processing information:

Processed by Sean Dickerson.

Arrangement:

Series I. Oral history interviews Series II. Photographs Series III. A Black Woman's Experience in Hitler's Germany

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.

Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.

Terms of access:

Permission to publish must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.

Preferred citation:

Helene Everly Collection, MS 148, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.

Location of this collection:
659 14th Street
Oakland, CA 94612, US
Contact:
(510) 637-0198
aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org
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