Hal H. Myers (b. 1930) was born Hans Hanauer to a Jewish family in Karlsruhe, Germany. As a Jew in Nazi Germany, he was victim to heightening abuse during the 1930s. His older sister Ruth had been evacuated to England on a Kindertransport in 1938 leaving him with his parents and younger brother Dieter. In October, 1940, he and his remaining family were transported to Camp de Gurs, a French concentration camp.
In January, 1941, the Quakers arranged for the removal of fifty children from the camp, including Dieter. Hans joined him in the second transfer at a sanctuary near Toulouse in March. In August, 1941, he was informed that he would be sent to America, arriving on the
Upon arrival in America, the brothers were eventually placed with Cleveland , Ohio,philanthropists David and Inez Myers. After the war, Hans stayed in Cleveland, attending Case Institute of Technology and graduating in 1953. Hans ultimately changed his name to Hal Hanauer Myers.
The Hal Hanauer Myers Papers, 1938-2005 and undated (bulk dates1938-1954), consist of speeches, correspondence and envelopes, calendars, school notebooks, various identification cards, scrapbook pages, news clippings, photographs, and books. Of particular interest are his Nazi identification card, brief autobiographical speech given at Congregation Shaarey Tikvah, wartime correspondence with his sister and family, some of which is in German, and notebooks used in the Quaker (American Friends Service Committee) refugee camp to learn English and French.
This collection is of value to researchers studying Jewish life in 1930s Germany, attempts to save German Jewry from the Holocaust, or the Myers family of Cleveland, Ohio. All photographs have been retained within the collection.
The collection is arranged alphabetically by document type and then chronologically.
The researcher should also consult MS 5039 David N. Myers Papers.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4986 Hal Hanauer Myers Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Hal H. Myers.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.