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Helen Straus-Sachs

Helen Straus-Sachs was a friend of Otto Frank. Together with her husband Nathan Straus Jr. she helped the Frank family in their attempt to emigrate to the United States.

Person

Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie Straus Historical Society, New York
  • Helen Emilie Straus-Sachs
  • Born on: July 12, 1895
  • Born in: Elberon, New Jersey, USA
  • Died on: Dec. 23, 1990
  • Died in: New Canaan, Connecticut, USA

Helen Straus-Sachs, ongedateerd

Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie Straus Historical Society, New York

In copyright

Helen Emilie Sachs was the daughter of American Jewish neurologist Bernard Barney Sachs (1858-1944)[1] and German Jewish Bettina (Betty/Bertha) Rudolphina Stein (1867-1940).[2] She had an older sister Alice Sophie Sachs (1888-1972).[3] Her uncle Samuel Sachs was one of the founders of the Goldman-Sachs bank in New York.[4] Helen studied at the Baldwin School at Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania and the Ecole des Arts at Montreux in Switzerland.[5]

In 1914, Helen was travelling through Europe when she met American Jewish Nathan Straus Jr. Their families had been friends for some time. With the outbreak of World War I, Helen and Nathan Jr. were stranded and they waited in a hotel in Scheveningen for the opportunity to travel back to America. After their return to the United States, they married on 29 April 1915.[6] They had four sons: Nathan Straus III (1916-2014),[7] Barnard Sachs Straus (1919-2009),[8] Irving Lehman Straus (1921-2012)[9] and Ronald Peter Straus (1923-2012).[10]

During a stay in Europe in 1907, the Sachs family introduced the Straus family to the Frank family from Frankfurt. Because of that, her later husband Nathan Straus Jr. was good friends with Otto Frank. In the summer of 1928, Nathan Jr., Helen and their children enjoyed a holiday with Otto and Edith Frank in Sils-Maria, Switzerland.[11]

Assistance with emigration attempt

During World War II, Helen and Nathan Jr. helped friends and acquaintances who wanted to flee Europe or bring their children to safety. The two-year-old son of a business contact from England was staying at the Sachs family estate in Quarry Lake, New York.[12]

From the Netherlands occupied by Nazi Germany, Otto Frank sent a letter to his childhood friend Nathan Jr. on 30 April 1941, asking him to help his family in their attempt to flee to America.[13] It probably took a few weeks for Otto's letter to reach Nathan Jr. and Helen. Because of Nathan Jr.'s job as head of the United States Housing Authority, the Straus family often stayed in Washington DC, rather than at their home address in New York.[14] After reading the letter, Helen immediately took action and sent a letter to Augusta Mayerson of the National Refugee Service on 28 May 1941:

"after all the letters – requests for help we’ve had from people we hardly know, the enclosed one from Mr. Frank, from my husband’s best friend during their university years – an extraordinary fine man – as you can tell from the letter."[15]

But they also realised that this request was difficult: "We do want to help, but his request is hardly possible to fulfil."[15] So Helen asked what was possible to assist the Frank family.

Over the following months, Helen and her husband were in contact with various agencies, including the National Refugee Service. They also corresponded with Julius and Walter Holländer, Edith's brothers, who had already 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 by the end of 1941.[16]

After the war, Otto wrote a letter to the Straus family thanking them for their help, even though it was unsuccessful. He also informed them of his family's fate in the concentration camps.[17] Following the publication of Anne's diary and the appearance of an English translation, Otto sent a copy to the Straus family in 1952. Helen sent him a letter to thank him.[18]

Helen was a board member of several clubs and charitable organisations during her lifetime.[5] In 1958, she was nominated by Otto to join the board of directors of the to-be-founded American Anne Frank Foundation,[19] but her daughter-in-law Rebecca (Betty) Straus-Smith took her place on the first board of directors.[20]

After Nathan Jr. died in 1961, Helen and some of their children continued to correspond with Otto until his death in 1980.[21]

Source personal data.[22]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Wikipedia: Bernard Sachs; Family Search: Bernard Barney.
  2. ^ FamilySearch: Betty Bettina Rudolphina Stein.
  3. ^ FamilySearch: Alice Sophie Sachs.
  4. ^ Wikipedia: Samuel Sachs.
  5. a, b “Helen Sachs Straus, 95, Radio Station Official”, The New York Times, 24 december 1990.
  6. ^ 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. 56.
  7. ^ ‘Nathan Straus obituary’, New York Times, legacy.com, 2 januari, 2015.
  8. ^ My Heritage: Barnard Sachs Straus.
  9. ^ Geneanet: Irving Lehman Straus.
  10. ^ Wikipedia: Ronald Peter Straus.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Adler, For the sake of the children, p. 65.
  13. ^ ‘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.
  14. ^ Adler, For the sake of the children, p. 68.
  15. a, b ‘Helen Sachs-Straus aan Augusta Mayerson, 28 mei 1941’, in: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Otto Frank File.
  16. ^ 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, in: Ibidem.
  17. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_85.62: brief van Otto Frank aan Nathan Straus, 24 september 1945.
  18. ^ Ibidem: brief van Helen Straus-Sachs aan Otto Frank, 28 juli 1953.
  19. ^ AS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_359.1: Names Considered for Membership on the Board of Directors or Advisory Committees of Anne Frank Foundation, 18 april 1958. 
  20. ^ Ibidem: Formation of the American Committee for the International Anne Frank Youth Center, 9 maart 1959.
  21. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg.code OFA_321.6: brief van Otto Frank aan de Anne Frank Stichting, 1968; reg. code OFA_212.41: brief van R. Peter Straus aan Otto en Fritzi Frank, 30 oktober 1974; reg. code OFA_85.62: brief van Barnard Sachs Straus aan Otto Frank, 5 januari 1979; reg. code OFA_172.10: brief van Fritzi Frank aan Francis en Albert Hackett, 10 januari 1979.
  22. ^ FamilySearch: Helen E. Sachs; "Find a Grave Index,"  FamilySearch, Helen Sachs Straus; Burial, Hawthorne, Westchester, New York, United States of America, Mount Pleasant Cemetery; citing record ID 95315895.