Haeberlein-Metzger lebkuchen blue decorative tin brought to the US by a German Jewish refugee
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington, United States
Nuremberg lebkuchen blue painted tin by Haeberlein-Metzger brought by Karl Weiler to the United States when he left Nazi Germany in December 1937. Lebkuchen is a cookie similar to gingerbread and only lebkuchen produced in Nuremberg can bear the city name. Karl lost his position as an assistant judge in March 1933 when the new Nazi government purged the civil service of Jews and passed a law to that effect April 7 with the first Aryan only qualification clause. Karl rejoined the family agricultural firm in Brakel. Anti-Jewish pressures increased and, in May 1936, the firm’s board of directors was forced to sell the business at a loss to a Nazi approved buyer. In December 1937, Karl left for the US. After the war ended in May 1945, he learned that his parents, Fritz and Ella, had been deported to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in 1942, then in 1944 to Auschwitz killing center where they were murdered. His sister, Mathilde Fodor, had been deported from Budapest, Hungary, in November 1944 to Lichtenworth concentration camp where she died of starvation. Her husband, Joszi, and son, Karoly, survived.
- Title: Haeberlein-Metzger lebkuchen blue decorative tin brought to the US by a German Jewish refugee
- Location: Germany--Emigration and immigration--Biography. United States--Emigration and immigration--Biography.
- Provenance: The tin was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004 by Judy Gartner and Susan Oberfeld, the daughters of Carl and Mina Kaufmann Weiler.
- Subject Keywords: Jewish refugees--United States--Biography. Jews--Germany--History--20th century. Jews--Persecutions--Germany--Biography.
- Type: Containers
- Rights: Permanent Collection
- External Link: See the full record at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Medium: Rectangular tin container with rounded corners, a hinged lid, and painted images on a blue background. The lid has a knight in white armor on an orange horse within a rectangle of red and orange banners with Gothic text. The base has an image of an orange castle gate and roofs; near the top is a red banner with the product name, a coat of arms, and a yellow and white oak leaf with a red acorn. On the right is a woman with a white bonnet, ruff collar, and a red skirt. To her right is a man with a black hat and vest, a white ruff collar, and a white funnel. On the left is a man with a black hat and red coat on a white horse. At the bottom is a red banner with German Gothic text. The underside has an embossed rectangle and stamped German text.
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