Auguste Saalfeld née Einstein restitution file
- Repository
- Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg
- Reference
- EL 350 I Bü 36930
- Date
- —
- People
- Auguste Einstein Saalfeld, Ignatz Saalfeld, Caecilie Saalfeld Wortsmann
- Places
- Stuttgart, Württemberg, Atlanta, Georgia, New York, New York, Limburg an der Lahn, Hesse
Reliability and limits
Complete archival reproduction comprising 212 scan images, delivered by the reproduction service on 18 August 2026 and recovered on 27 August 2026. The original ZIP is held in the private archive. The package is complete and checksum verified. On 13 September 2026 all 212 consecutively numbered JPEGs were systematically classified using filename order, local OCR, contact-sheet review of every image, and full-resolution visual review of the material evidence pages. The dossier structure is: images 0001-0011, cover, routing, late heir correspondence, and administrative sheets; 0012-0019, Auguste's death certificate and termination/recovery of pension payments; 0020-0053, pension-transfer correspondence, annual declarations, and routine pension administration; 0054-0075, property-loss decision and its investigation; 0076-0092, professional-loss calculation, settlement, family evidence, and sworn statements; 0093-0112, business-history evidence and related correspondence, including tax, chamber-of-commerce, commercial-register, and mover searches; 0113-0118, renewed BEG application and follow-up; 0119-0140, household-property investigation and prosecutorial correspondence; 0141-0163, emigration-cost decision and supporting Cunard and residence evidence; 0164-0171, original 1955 claim, application, power of attorney, and a largely illegible handwritten sworn statement; 0172-0194, accounting cards, working calculations, and duplicate decision/settlement copies; and 0195-0212, the appended criminal-investigation file concerning the disputed household claim. Material clusters are 0015-0019 (death, kinship, and last residence), 0054-0060 and 0133-0134/0196-0212 (contested household loss, investigation, dismissal, and partial award), 0076-0089 and 0098-0109 (Saalfeld business, Auguste's work, and family evidence), 0126-0127 and 0141-0154 (Swiss route, Aquitania booking, and migration-cost award), and 0164-0171 (Auguste's original claims). Images 0179-0194 substantially duplicate the decisions and settlement at 0054-0057 and 0076-0080. Evidence layers remain distinct. Auguste alleged that fear and a rapid flight forced her to leave the Reinsburgstrasse 200 household and ask the also persecuted Fritz Schwarz to sell valuables. Her daughter's account, relayed through counsel at 0126-0127, says the daughter fled first, met Auguste for several days in Switzerland, and knew of no sale proceeds. Landlord Jakob Mueller gave changing retrospective accounts about removal of the furniture. The prosecutor dismissed the suspected-fraud case because the conflicting, elderly witnesses and plausible third-party removals could not prove a false representation. The compensation authority nevertheless rejected total abandonment or confiscation, inferred a hurried distress sale by Schwarz, estimated an RM 5,115 loss, and awarded DM 1,023. These findings do not prove who removed each item or whether Auguste received any proceeds. The Cunard letters and official decisions establish the ship, sailing date, ticket number, Berlin booking, and $240 total fare/taxes. The authority's Swiss route and 30 November departure finding is consistent with counsel's account but is not a contemporary border record. The handwritten statement at 0171 is signed and dated 23 November 1955 but is not transcribed because most of its cursive text remains uncertain. Public metadata and conservative short excerpts may be shared; publication of any scan requires separate rights review.
Supported discoveries
Civil records described in the archive identify the household and Karoline's maiden surname. Auguste's 1965 death certificate in S-027 independently names her parents as Emil Einstein and Caroline Schweizer; the informant was her daughter, Mrs. Max Wortsman.
The linked Stuttgart birth notice establishes the event and parents. S-027's certified Georgia death record independently repeats the exact birth date, Germany as birthplace, and the parents Emil Einstein and Caroline Schweizer.
Rubin Milton Silverstein's contemporary obituary directly identifies Edith Silverstein as his wife. S-027's certified death record names Mrs. Max Wortsman as Auguste's daughter; related file correspondence explicitly calls Cecilie Wortsman nee Saalfeld the daughter of Auguste and Ignatz, strengthening the first parent-child link. S-028 independently repeats that relationship in Auguste's signed application and counsel's family submissions. The remaining links in this composite chain are strongly supported by the existing family and published evidence, but S-027's Cunard confirmation describes the Wortsmann children only by age and does not name Edith.
S-022's Certificate of Arrival, declaration, petition, and independent Ohio and Alabama witness depositions agree on the New York arrival and establish the Cincinnati-to-Birmingham-to-Atlanta residence sequence. S-027's Cunard correspondence independently establishes the 3 December Cherbourg sailing, ticket 333320, and Berlin booking. The restitution authority found that she left Germany on 30 November and traveled via Switzerland; counsel separately relayed her daughter's statement that the daughter fled first and met Auguste for several days in Switzerland.
S-027 includes the commercial-register extract, Limburg municipal and chamber replies, tax figures, and the compensation authority's review. Those contemporary records establish the firm, formal ownership, procuration, and 1934 deletion. Cecilia Wortsman's sworn 1958 statement identifies Auguste as the working manager who independently purchased stock in Berlin. The 1958 authority concluded that the Jewish proprietor's business would otherwise have participated in the post-1933 recovery and awarded Auguste compensation for lost professional advancement. S-028 preserves duplicate working copies of the authority's business history and settlement calculation.
The signed decisions, settlement copies, payment records, pension-adjustment decisions, and death-related closure correspondence in S-027 directly record each amount and disposition. The 1958 professional-loss settlement covered Auguste's own and derivative Ignatz claim and required waiver of further professional-loss compensation. S-028 preserves the corresponding authority calculation and waiver requirement from Ignatz's heirs file.
Publication boundary
This page publishes citation metadata only. A public citation does not make the original scan, transcription, translation, or restricted file public.