Reading Room
Selected documents and objects
Begin with a 14-record path through the family story, or browse all 64 records selected for the Reading Room. The Complete Catalog lists every one of the archive’s 375 public records across 9 series.
Filter and sort
The default path begins with Dolf’s 1938 letter, then establishes the households and shops of Halberstadt and Wernigerode, persecution and flight, and the family’s American chapter.
By kind
What survives
Open a selected card for its source, date, evidence status, credit and reuse terms. Use the Complete Catalog for the full public collection.
Showing 14 of 14 records
The letter
Letter
Dolf’s letter from St. Moritz to Mutti
Dolf wrote these two sheets to his mother from St. Moritz on 26 November 1938.
Halberstadt and Wernigerode
Photographs
The Reichenbach family
Dolf stands beside Margarete and Paul in the principal surviving family portrait from before 1935.
Halberstadt and Wernigerode
Civil and official records
Paul entered the civil register as Jacob Paul Reichenbach
The Halberstadt register records Jacob Paul Reichenbach’s birth on 20 October 1876.
Halberstadt and Wernigerode
Civil and official records
The register names Ruth Helene Reichenbach at birth
The Halberstadt register records Ruth Helene Reichenbach’s birth on 16 May 1909.
Halberstadt and Wernigerode
Civil and official records
The register records Dolf’s birth in Halberstadt
The Halberstadt register records Dolf’s birth and names Paul and Margarete as his parents.
Halberstadt and Wernigerode
Civil and official records
The marriage record signed for Gustav Reichenbach and Jeanette Rosenbaum
Gustav and Jeanette’s 1883 marriage record connects the Halberstadt and Wernigerode family branches.
Halberstadt and Wernigerode
Civil and official records
Fritz appears as the seller of Breite Straße 7
The 1938 forced-sale deed records the loss of the family property at Breite Straße 7 in Wernigerode.
Halberstadt and Wernigerode
Photographs
Kaufhaus Reichenbach at Martiniplan 10 at night
A family-held night photograph records the illuminated Martiniplan 10 façade and display windows.
Halberstadt and Wernigerode
Commercial objects
A wooden hanger marked for J. Reichenbach men’s and boys’ fashions
A surviving wooden hanger carries the J. Reichenbach men’s-and-boys’ clothing mark.
Persecution and flight
Civil and official records
Kurt Reichenbach on the transport list
The transport list dated 14 April 1942 names Kurt Reichenbach; the next page names Paula and Hans Wollenberg. They were deported from Halberstadt on 12 April.
The American chapter
Civil and official records
Dolf Reichenbach’s Certificate of Naturalization
Dolf’s family-held certificate records his naturalization in Boston on 15 May 1944.
The American chapter
Photographs
Susan “Subie” Ulmer Reichenbach at seventeen or eighteen
A family-held studio portrait shows Susan “Subie” Ulmer at about seventeen or eighteen, before her marriage to Dolf.
The American chapter
Photographs
Classmates already called her Subie
The 1943 Simmons yearbook gives Susan Berne Ulmer’s portrait, school record and the nickname Subie.
The American chapter
Oral history
Susan Reichenbach Heyman remembers her father’s escape
Dolf and Subie’s daughter recalls her father’s escape. Recorded in Newton, Massachusetts, on 5 August 2026 and published with the speaker’s permission.
Explore all civil evidence: registers, citizenship, addresses and sources cited in the biographies.