Finding Aids | The Breman Museum

Dates:  ca. 1892-2003

Creator:  Goldhammer and Roth Family

Summary/Abstract:  This collection contains various papers from the Roth and Goldhammer families, Holocaust survivors originally from Austria-Hungary. Included are two Hungarian autograph books, four passports, a medical school identification book for Dr. Egon Goldhammer, medical certificates and licensure, birth and death certificates, interview manuscript of Mrs. Goldhammer, and correspondence in Hungarian and German between Roth and Goldhammer family members.

Quantity/Physical Description: 0.75 linear feet

Language(s):  Hungarian, German, English, Yiddish, Slovak

Repository: The Cuba Family Archives for Southern Jewish History, The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, 1440 Spring Street NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30309.

Restrictions on Access:  There are no restrictions on accessing material in this collection.

Restrictions on Use:  Copyright restrictions may apply.  Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright.  Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation:  Box #, Folder #, Mss 301, Goldhammer & Roth Family Papers, The Cuba Family Archives for Southern Jewish History, The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, 1440 Spring Street NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30309.

Separated Material:  Oversize Materials, Photographs, Video Tapes

Processed by:  Lindsay Resnick and Jeremy Katz (April 2014), Amber Anderson (June 2019)

Arrangement: The folders are arranged alphabetically.

Biographical/Historical Note: Dr. Egon Goldhammer was born in Austria in 1900, his wife Josefine Roth (some documents claim her first name was Gyöngyi but the birth records in this collection state her name as Josefine, we do know however that while in the US she went by the name Ginger), was born in Hungary in 1906.  They met in Vienna, where Egon was a young doctor taking care of Ginger’s sick aunt and married in 1934. In 1938, Hitler forces came to Vienna, Austria, where the couple resided, arrested Dr. Goldhammer and sent him to Buchenwald concentration camp. To save her husband life, she relied on a non-Jewish friend, who also happen to be a Nazi, to orchestrate Dr. Goldhammer release and escape to China.  Ginger eventually joined him, and the couple stayed Hongkew Ghetto in Shanghai, China until 1947. While there, Dr. Goldhammer receive a certificate to practice medicine in China.  When the couple entered the United States, they originally moved to New York.  Egon later worked as a doctor in the Veteran’s Administration, at a hospital in Mission, Texas and another in Rome, Georgia.  Suffering from some sickness, he died in 1966. After her husband’s death, Mrs. Goldhammer moved to Atlanta, where she volunteered over 38,000 hours for the VA Hospital, and spent the rest of her time volunteering for other organizations such as the Anti-defamation League, the American Cancer Society, and many Jewish organizations.  She died in 2008 at the age of 102.

Scope and Content: Researchers studying the Goldhammer/Roth Family Papers will gain insight into Jewish life in Hungary during World War I, the Shanghai Hongkew Ghetto, and both World Wars.

Subject Terms

Persons/Families

            Goldhammer, Egon

            Goldhammer, Ginger Roth

Roth, Julius

Roth, Sidonia Fried

Places

              Vienna (Austria)

              Hungary

             Shanghai (China)

Subjects (General)

            World War, 1914-1918

            World War, 1939-1945

Material Types

            Passports

            Correspondence

Collection Inventory