William Lipman was born December 28, 1895 in Poland and died May 10, 1981 in Cleveland, Ohio. At the outbreak of World War II, Lipman's mother and several siblings were living in Poland. In Poland, the family name was Lipke. Lipman immigrated to Cleveland in 1910 and married Gertrude, nee Kornreich, (b. January 30, 1903) on April 6, 1924. Lipman owned Bill's Clothing and Furnishings, with two locations at St. Clair Avenue and East 152nd Street and 618 East 185th Street, Cleveland. The family correspondence attests to the family's connection to their country of origin, the immigrant's need to adapt to different circumstances in foreign countries, and to the ways in which immigrant families attempted to aid relatives financially.
The William Lipman Family Papers, 1940-1968, consist of correspondence, telegrams, and receipts.
This collection is of value to researchers seeking information about the Holocaust, immigration, and the role of American Jews in aiding relatives oversees before and after World War II. It has evidence of the difficulty in obtaining entry into the United States, and reflects post-war life for Jews in France, Israel, and the United States. Much of the correspondence relates to Mr. Lipman's efforts to obtain visas for his mother and siblings to emigrate from Nazi Poland in 1940-1941, and for two cousins (brothers) who managed to get to Kobe, Japan and then to Shanghai. The papers also give evidence of Mr. Lipman's financial aid and support to his family both before and after the war. Researchers interested in various Jewish organizations involved in assisting refugees will find this collection useful. The collections also documents contacts with the United States government and attempts to get to the Dominican Republic and Paraguay because the United States quota system was a barrier to entering the United States. Also of interest is correspondence showing that the Kohn brothers in Kobe, Japan, made contact with William Lipman through an advertisement in the Jewish Daily Forward. The family correspondence documents one family's response to the Holocaust and the efforts of American Jews to aid relatives in Eastern Europe during World War II.
The collection is arranged chronologically.
Processed by Barbara A. Schwartz in 2008.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4998 William Lipman Family Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Debbie Lipman in 2008.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.