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Nathan Straus Jr.

Nathan Straus Jr. was a friend of Otto Frank, whom he knew from Heidelberg University. Together with his wife Helen Straus-Sachs, he helped the Frank family in their attempt to emigrate to the United States.

Person

Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie Straus Historical Society, New York
  • Charles Webster (Nathan) Straus
  • Born on: May 27, 1889
  • Born in: New York, USA
  • Died on: Sept. 13, 1961
  • Died in: Massapequa, USA

Nathan Straus Jr., ongedateerd

Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie Straus Historical Society, New York

In copyright

Charles (Charley) Webster Straus (later Nathan Straus Jr.)[1] was the fifth of six children of Lina Straus-Gutherz (1854-1930) and Nathan Straus Sr. (1848-1931).[2] His father and uncle (Isidor Straus) were the owners of department store R.H. Macy & Co in New York, Heraldssquare, Broadway at sixth Avenue, 34-35th Street. He was named after Charles B. Webster, the previous owner of Macy's.[3]

His parents were German Jews who had emigrated to America. He had an older sister Sara "Sissie" Straus (1879-1950) and a younger brother Hugh Grant Straus (1890-1961). His oldest brother Jerome Nathan Straus (1876-1893) died when Charley was three years old. Another sister and brother had died in infancy before his birth: Sara Gutherz Straus (1877-1878) and Roland Straus (1881-1884).[2]

Meeting Otto Frank

The Straus family lived in New York, but frequently stayed in Europe with their children.[4] Charley began studies at Princeton University in 1906 and studied for two semesters at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg in 1908-1909.[5] There, in 1908, he met Otto Frank, who was studying art history at the same university. They were only fifteen days apart in age and became friends: "Otto was not only my closest friend […] but he was the one my parents liked best."[6] When Charley returned to the United States in 1909, he invited Otto to join him. Charley's father offered Otto an internship at Macy's, which he accepted.[7]

In 1910, Charley completed his education at Princeton. Shortly thereafter, he officially changed his name to Nathan Straus Jr. For a long time, Otto Frank continued to call him by his old name "Charley."[8]

Nathan Jr. developed an interest in journalism and briefly held a job at The New York Globe newspaper. Along with his younger brother Hugh Grant Straus, he also got a management position within Macy's. Nathan Straus Sr. retired from the management of Macy's in 1913 after his brother Isidor Straus had died a year earlier, along with his wife, in the Titanic disaster. Isidor Straus' three sons continued the business. The sons of Nathan Straus Sr. took charge of two other family businesses: Straus & Sons went to Nathan Jr. and his younger brother became owner of Abraham & Straus.[9] Nathan Jr. had little interest in this business and in 1913 bought the humor magazine Puck, which he owned until 1917.[10]

In 1914, Nathan Jr. was traveling through Europe with his sister Sissie Straus and her husband when World War I broke out. They were stranded in Munich, Germany, but received permission to stay at Scheveningen in the Netherlands until they could return to the United States. Here he met Helen Emilie Sachs (1895-1990), whom he married after returning to the U.S. on 29 April 1915.[10] They had four sons: Nathan Straus III (1916-2014), Barnard Sachs Straus (1919-2009), Irving Lehman Straus (1921-2012) and Ronald Peter Straus (1923-2012).[11]

After the war, he returned to The New York Globe, but he left the paper again in 1920 to switch to a political career. In 1921, he was elected as a Democrat to the New York Senate.[12] He served in office until 1926 and then held various government positions.[13]

The friendship with Otto Frank remained. A postcard is known from the summer of 1928, which Nathan Jr. and his family sent to Leni Elias-Frank, Otto's younger sister. On it, Nathan Jr. writes that they had a good time together with Otto and Edith Frank during a holiday in Sils-Maria, Switzerland.[14]

Assistance with emigration attempt

On 14 April 1936, Otto sent a letter to Nathan Jr. writing about political developments in Europe:

“Because of Germany’s proximity the smell is not always pleasant, but the Dutch are tolerant. Politics in general has lost their course. Europe sits on a powder keg, no matter how the present differences will be resolved.”[15]

Otto had already fled to the Netherlands with his family a few years earlier, but felt the need to emigrate further. In 1938, he applied for a visa to emigrate to the United States at the American consulate in Rotterdam.[16] During the bombing of Rotterdam, on 14 May 1940, the consulate was destroyed. The application of Otto and his family was lost.[17]

The Frank family again tried to flee Europe in 1941. On 30 April 1941, Otto wrote to Nathan Jr. who had an influential network in America, asking him to help.[16] Nathan Jr. and his wife Helen approached the National Refugee Service, and other organizations. They were also in contact with Julius and Walter Holländer, Edith's brothers who had previously fled to the United States. They had applied for affidavits for their relatives and asked the Straus family for help with funding. Despite their efforts, they were unable to overcome the bureaucratic obstacles, and Otto and his family's application stalled in late 1941.[18]

After the war, Otto wrote another letter to Nathan Jr. on 24 September 1945, thanking him for his help, even though it was unsuccessful. He also informed him of his family's fate in the concentration camps.[19] When he replied to Otto's letter, Nathan Jr. also transferred five hundred dollars to support him financially.[20]

Involvement with translation of the diary

After Otto published his daughter Anne's diary, he wanted The Secret Annex to be translated into English, among other languages. He asked friends and acquaintances in the United States for help. Nathan Jr., since 1943 president of the radio station WMCA,[1] visited several potential publishers on Otto's behalf.[21]

Nathan Jr. and Helen were friends with former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.[22] It is possible that he put Otto in contact with her, after which the publisher Doubleday & Co approached her to write the foreword for the American version of the diary, published on 12 June 1952.[23]

Involvement with the theatre play

When Otto was working on a theatre adaptation of the diary, he again asked Nathan Jr. for advice. After Meyer Levin's first play had been rejected by the producer, Nathan Jr. advised that the play would be best written by a non-Jew. According to him, this would better reflect the universality of the subject and the play would be better received by a non-Jewish audience.[24]

Otto followed this advice, but the earlier rejection of Meyer Levin led to a long conflict that ended up in court in 1955, with Meyer Levin repeatedly seeking the press and also convincing Eleanor Roosevelt to send a critical letter to Otto in 1957.[25] Otto was very distressed by this and asked Nathan Jr. for support.[26] With that, Nathan Jr. sent a detailed letter to Eleanor Roosevelt asking her to write Otto a reassuring message.[27]

In 1957, Nathan Jr. gave a cheque for ten thousand dollars for student housing at the Delft University of Technology. This after hearing from Otto that Dutch students had stood up for the Jews during World War II. The money was used to refurbish a student house at Oude Delft 106 in Delft, which was named the Nathan Straus House. Otto Frank was present at the ceremony.[28]

Nathan Straus was found dead in a hotel room in Massapequa, New York, on 13 September 1961, aged 72.[29]

Source personal data.[30]

Footnotes

  1. a, b Wikipedia: Nathan Straus Jr.
  2. a, b Wikipedia: Nathan Straus.
  3. ^ 'R. H. Macy & Co., Inc.’, International Directory of Company Histories, Encyclopedia.com, 2016.
  4. ^ Joan Adler, For the sake of the children. The letters between Otto Frank and Nathan Straus Jr., Smithtown, New York: Straus Historical Society, 2013, p. 14-15.
  5. ^ In a 1957 letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, Nathan Straus talked about three semesters: Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), Otto Frank Archief (OFA), reg. code OFA_172: Brief van Nathan Straus Jr. aan Eleanor Roosevelt, 19 april 1957; According to the university's enrollment books, it was for two semesters: Personal-Verzeichnis der Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg, Winter-Halbjahr 1907/08; Ibidem, Sommer-Halbjahr 1908.
  6. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_172.16: Brief van Nathan Straus Jr. aan Eleanor Roosevelt, 19 april 1957.
  7. ^ Carol Ann Lee, Het verborgen leven van Otto Frank, Amsterdam: Balans, 2002, p. 26-31.
  8. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_85.62: Correspondentie Otto Frank met Nathan en Helen Straus, 24 september 1945.
  9. ^ Robert M. Grippo, Macy’s. The store. The Star. The Story, Garden City, NY: Square One Publishers, 2009, p. 53-93.
  10. a, b Adler, For the sake of the children, p. 55-56.
  11. ^ ‘Nathan Straus obituary’, New York Times, legacy.com, 2 januari, 2015; My Heritage: Barnard Sachs Straus; Geneanet: Irving Lehman Straus; Wikipedia: Ronald Peter Straus.
  12. ^ James Malcolm, The New York Red Book, Albany: J.B. Lyon Company Publishers, 1922, p. 81.
  13. ^ Including, between 1937 and 1942, the first head of the United States Housing Authority, see Wikipedia: Nathan Straus Jr.
  14. ^ Straus Historical Society, Ansichtkaart van Nathan Straus Jr. aan Leni Elias-Frank, 23 juli 1928; Joan Adler, 'Otto Frank and Nathan Straus Jr., Their Letters discovered at New York's YIVO', Straus Historical Society Newsletter, volume 9, 1, augustus 2007, p. 1-6.
  15. ^ Original quote: ‘Durch die Nähe Deutschlands ist die Luft auch hier nicht immer angenehm, aber die Holländer sind tolerant. Die allgemeine Politik hat sich verrant. Europa sitzt auf einem Pulverfass, ganz gleich wie die jetzigen Differenzen äusserlich gelöst werden.’ AFS, AFC, reg. code A_OFrank_I_071: gedeelte van een brief van Otto Frank aan Nathan Straus, 14 april 1936.
  16. a, b ‘Otto Frank aan Nathan Straus, 30 april 1941’, in: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Otto Frank File: An historical account of Otto Frank’s efforts to emigrate from Nazi-occupied Holland in 1941 with his wife Edith, daughters Margot and Anne, and mother-in-law Rosa Hollander, and the surviving Hollander family’s attempts to locate the Frank Family after World War II, New York City, 2007.
  17. ^ Rebecca Erbelding & Gertjan Broek, German bombs and US bureaucrats: how escape lines from Europe were cut off, Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2018.
  18. ^ A large number of letters have survived between Otto Frank, the Straus couple, the Holländer brothers, the National Refugee Service, the Boston Committee for Refugees and the Jewish Council in Amsterdam, documenting the Frank family's attempt to emigrate: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Otto Frank File.
  19. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_85.62: brief van Otto Frank aan Nathan Straus, 24 september 1945.
  20. ^ Ibidem: brief van Nathan Straus aan Otto Frank, 25 oktober 1945.
  21. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_154.1: Brief van Nathan Straus aan Otto Frank, 30 juni 1950.
  22. ^ Ibidem: brief van Nathan Straus aan Otto Frank, 15 mei 1952.
  23. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_154.6: brief van Francis Price aan Otto Frank, 24 april 1951.
  24. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_85.62: brief van Nathan Straus aan Otto Frank, 15 januari 1953.
  25. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_172.16: brief van Eleanor Roosevelt aan Otto Frank, 2 april 1957.
  26. ^ Ibidem: brief van Otto Frank aan Nathan Straus, 14 april 1957.
  27. ^ Ibidem: brief van Nathan Straus aan Eleanor Roosevelt, 19 april 1957.
  28. ^ ‘De heer Straus gaf 10.000 dollar voor huisvesting Nederlandse studenten’, Het Parool, 22 juli 1957.
  29. ^ ‘1st FHA Chief, Nathan Straus Is Dead at 72’, Daily News, New York, 14 september 1961.
  30. ^ "Find a Grave Index," database, FamilySearch, Nathan Straus Jr.; Burial, Hawthorne, Westchester, New York, United States of America, Mount Pleasant Cemetery; citing record ID 95315846.