Heinz History Center launches new digital archive documenting efforts to rescue Jews from the Holocaust
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Henry Ellenbogen may not be a household name in 2024, but he was a U.S. congressman and longtime judge in Allegheny County.
In the 1930s and early 40s, he helped lead an effort to get Jewish people out of Nazi Germany and Austria, ultimately helping them escape the Holocaust.
"What you had to do if you were trying to get out was work through the bureaucracies of two countries," said Eric Lidji, the Director of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. "So, you were trying to get permission to leave, and you were also trying to get permission to enter, and Ellenbogen is really working on helping people get permission to enter, and a big part of that is having someone locally who would vouch for you."
Ellenbogen corresponded and vouched for hundreds of Jews so they could enter the U.S., saving their lives from the atrocities of Hitler's Third Reich.
KDKA-TV got to see the hard copies of just a few of these letters that are now all digitized and in an online database thanks to a donation made by the Ellenbogen family.
Project Archivist Catelyn Cocuzzi told KDKA-TV that is just one of the many stories these letters chronicle.
"Fred Goodman was writing to Henry Ellenbogen to seek out his help in bringing his mother and brother over from Austria between the years 1938 and 1940," Cocuzzi said. "So, this is a two-year stretch of Henry Ellenbogen using his power and his privilege to connect this family to other government officials and to bring them over to the United States. And they were successful in the end because both his mother and his brother did get to come over.
The digital archive is available now for anyone to view online. For more information, click here.