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Edith Schoenberger Kaufman papers, 1870-2006
BANC MSS 2010/729
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Collection Title: Edith Schoenberger Kaufman papers
Date (inclusive): 1870-2006
Collection Number: BANC MSS 2010/729
Creators :
Kaufman, Edith Schoenberger, 1904-1995
Extent:
Number of containers: 1 carton, 3 boxes, 13 oversize boxes
(linear feet: 8)
Repository: The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
Abstract: The collection consists of Edith Schoenberger Kaufman's family papers, photographs, and photo albums/scrapbooks. The materials
document Edith's family life in Germany, the experience of Edith and her first husband, Eugen Schoenberger, in Nazi Germany
and in France under Germany occupation, her immigration to the United States, and Edith's work in the Jewish community in
Missouri and California.
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Collection is open for research.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head
of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000. Consent is given on behalf of The
Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright
owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted
in writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000. Consent is
given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], Edith Schoenberger Kaufman papers, BANC MSS 2010/729, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
There are no alternate forms of this collection.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Kaufman, Edith Schoenberger, 1904-1995--Archives
Kaufman, Bernard, 1914-2008
Schoenberger, Eugen, 1871-1970
Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America
American Friends of the Hebrew University
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Concentration camps--France
Jews--Germany--Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Jews--Missouri--Saint Louis
Jews--California--San Francisco
Jewish women--California--San Francisco
Jews--Claims
Scrapbooks
Photographs
Ephemera
Judah L. Magnes Museum. 2008.24 AR1
Bancroft Library. Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life
The Edith Schoenberger Kaufman papers were given to The Bancroft Library by the Judah L. Magnes Museum in 2010.
No additions are expected.
Processed by Lara Michels in 2009. Additional processing by Lara Michels in 2011.
Edith Falk was born in 1904 in Berlin. In 1933, she married Eugen Schoenberger (1871-1970) and moved to Mainz. Schoenberger
ran a successful sparkling wine business called Schoenberger Cabinet. The Nazis seized the company and changed its name to
Sectkellerei Alt Mainz shortly before Edith and Eugen fled Germany for France in 1939. Edith was arrested in France and spent
time in Camp de Gurs before her husband managed, with much difficulty, to secure her release and obtain the visas necessary
to enter Spain and Portugal. The couple arrived in the United States in 1941 and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where they
remained for ten years and where Edith was quite active in the Jewish community and especially in the local chapter of Hadassah,
for which she served as President from 1949 through 1951. The Schoenbergers moved to San Francisco in 1952. By then, all of
Schoenberger’s assets that had been seized by the Nazis had been returned to him. The mayor of Mainz reportedly wanted to
return the sparkling wine company to Schoenberger, but the couple did not wish to return to live in Germany. The company was
later purchased by Seagram and Company. Eugen Schoenberger died in San Francisco in 1970. Edith married Dr. Bernard Kaufman,
a San Francisco physician, in 1974. She remained active in the Jewish community of San Francisco through her work chairing
the local chapter of Hadassah from 1956 through 1958 and her work on behalf of the American Friends of the Hebrew University
where she created an endowment for the study of enology and viticulture in memory of her first husband. Edith Kaufman was
also an avid art collector and donated much of her collection to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Edith Kaufman died in 1995.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of family papers, photographs, and photo albums/scrapbooks. Family papers range from personal documents
and correspondence to materials relating to Holocaust restitution. There are also papers relating to Edith Schoenberger Kaufman’s
work with Hadassah. Files on Eugen Schoenberger’s company, Schoenberger Cabinet, are particularly rich both with information
about the Nazi seizure of a Jewish company and with ephemera and materials documenting the company’s products. The collection
includes a large number of photo albums and scrapbooks documenting Edith Schoenberger Kaufman’s family, travels, and philanthropic
work. Particularly noteworthy are the early travel photo albums from the 1930s, the family photo album (circa 1870-1951),
which documents the World War II era emigration of Edith's extended Jewish family from Germany, and the scrapbooks and photo
albums documenting Eugen Schoenberger’s life and his company.