Oppenheimer Helped Extract Family from Germany
As Hitler rose to power, Oppenheimer understood the threat the Third Reich posed to Jews in Germany. He and his brother Frank personally sponsored his Aunt Hedwig Stern, their father’s younger sister, and her son, cousin Alfred, from Cologne, in 1937. Aunt Hedwig and Alfred intended to stay with Julius Oppenheimer when they arrived in the United States. Unfortunately, he died just before their arrival.
They went to California, where Oppenheimer helped them set up a home in Oakland, where Alfred got his medical license. Oppenheimer was close with his aunt after her relocation. On VE day in 1945, Oppenheimer wrote his aunt, “Hedwig, dear, Endlich. It is true that the most terrible and menacing problems remain. But VE is not nothing. It is twelve years late, but not nothing. Our love to you all, & every good wish. Our thoughts are with you at this time. Robert.”
