By Kelsey L. Koym, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian.
The focus of this post is on the recordings AVA.MS007.017 and AVA.MS007.018 from MS 007 the Hilde Bruch, MD papers. These recordings are derived from Dr. Hilde Bruch, whose life offers incredible insight into one of the most tumultuous and disheartening periods of history, which includes World War II and the genocide known as the Holocaust between 1933-1945. The recordings take place only a few years after the end of the War, and their details reverberate through time with remnants of the devastating aftermath of the War and a citizenry that seeks to carry on by carrying out familial and work matters.
Dr. Bruch was a pioneer for women in the field of psychiatry and is most known professionally for her work on childhood eating disorders. Bruch’s work is foundational to the field, however, her impact goes beyond the professional. Much of the details from these recordings are only fully realized in the context of Hilde Bruch’s biography Unlocking the Golden Cage. The work floodlights Bruch’s personal and professional history and is written by Joanna Hatch Bruch, the wife of Hilde’s nephew and adopted son, Herbert Bruch. The recordings, paired with the biographical work, illustrate why archives is able to draw out the lives of those who are no longer with us today.
“Herbert was a child who’d never had love, at least he didn’t remember that he did have love-no! Even though he had [love] when he was a youngster. The boy looks like an entirely different boy.”
Excerpt from unidentified man in recording. [AVA.MS007.017. 1948?]
In December 1941 Rudolf Bruch, Hilde’s older brother, and his family including his wife, Selma, and their daughter, Ilse, were sent to the ghetto in Riga, Latvia (pg. 171-172). Their eldest son, Herbert Bruch had been successfully smuggled to England, and the family hadn’t seen him since November 10th, 1941. Unfortunately, there would never be a reunion among the family. Rudolf, who had previously been incarcerated at Dachau, would die of typhus at the Salaspils Labor camp (pg. 177-178). According to Holocaust survivors, Selma and Ilse were put on a train destined for Auschwitz on November 2nd, 1943 (pg. 184-185). Herbert became the lone survivor of his family, and in 1946 was adopted by Hilde Bruch, who had a strong desire to be a mother and to look after the boy out of familial duty. This is seen and heard through evidence from her biography and from the quotes in the recording that depict her stance on the matter. In the recording you hear her argue with the man about how she did have a “duty” to take Herbert.
The date of this recording was approximated by lining up the details in the recording with the timeline that is in Unlocking the Golden Cage. Therefore, the date of the recording occurred approximately between 1946-1950 as Hilde states, “I took Herbert (5:23-25),” which occurred in 1946. The recording seems to indicate that Herbert is still living with her, and he moves out for college in 1950 (pg. 219). There is strong reason to believe the recording occurred in 1948, as it was ordered with other recordings that were marked with this date. This date also aligns with the range (i.e. 1946-1950) because the man and Hilde discuss visiting family in San Francisco, which is when that portion of Hilde’s family lived there according to Unlocking the Golden Cage.
At the beginning of the recording the man and Dr. Bruch are discussing another man and woman assumed to be Erna, Hilde’s younger sister, and Viktor Ries, Erna’s husband. This was ascertained with the help of the biography as the man plans to meet with Erna in San Francisco, which is where the couple was living around the estimated time of the recording. The woman they are discussing appears to be Erna because the man remarks that she has a child — specifically, a daughter. Erna was the only one who had one child, who was a daughter, and she was married to a man named Viktor, according to the biography. The man tells Hilde that he attended their wedding with her mother, and asks her “Who is he to me?” To which Hilde responds, “Cousin-cousin by marriage.” A more thorough analysis of an extended family tree may be able to confidently conclude who the man is, but Unlocking the Golden Cage only has immediate family in the tree.
Another detail which lines up with the biography include the street noises clearly heard in the background. It would be conjecture to emphatically claim that these street noises originated in New York City; however, Herbert and Hilde moved into a bigger apartment in New York City around the recording’s timeline according to the biography, so one can reasonably assume street noises like that would be made only in a city as large as New York at the time.
This recording contextualizes the biographical information in Unlocking the Golden Cage. Human memory is a funny and fickle thing, whereas archival evidence like the recording is evidentiary in nature. These aids are substitutes for an experience that has passed and is a part of that past. The next recording also adds contextual fabric to the life of Dr. Hilde Bruch.
“Mr. Earl Vance, Bishop’s Lodge. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dear Mr. Vance, I tried last year to make reservation for July and August at Bishop’s Lodge, but you could not take me. Later in the season, you told to me that you had vacancies, but unfortunately, my work schedule did not permit me to take a vacation at that time period. I wonder whether you could accommodate me this year, from about July 15 to the end of August. Period. I should like to get as comfortable a room as possible, but would accept whatever is available. Period. I have been repeatedly at Bishop’s lodge as a guest of Dr. Frieda Fromm Reichmann. Period. looking forward to hearing from you soon, sincerely..”
Excerpt from Hilde Bruch. [AVA.MS007.018. undated]
In the recording, you can hear Hilde dictating letters regarding vacationing in Santa Fe. Dr. Bruch dictates two letters to different hotels in Santa Fe, both are still there today, one including Bishop’s Lodge. She mentions her analyst and friend, Dr. Frieda Fromm Reichmann, who Hilde visits in Santa Fe routinely (p. 232). Dr. Reichmann and Dr. Bruch had bonded over their refugee status, as both had left Germany to pursue their psychiatric training and work in the United States (pg. 162-164).
Dr. Reichmann would also be the one to travel to England to bring back Herbert after Hilde had adopted him and secured his visa along with the help of her mentor Dr. Harry Stack Sullivan (pg. 199-201). Dr. Sullivan’s lectures are included along with other wire recordings in the series. Please see AVA.MS007.012 – AVA.MS007.016, and AVA.MS007.019 for the Interviews with Dr. Harry Stack Sullivan in AToM.
It is reductive to relay historical events simply as ‘something happened to someone somewhere’ because human beings are tied to our past in deeply intimate and emotional ways. In archives and in history, there is stewardship to the memories of tragedy and survivorship because it reminds those in the present on how it is possible to heal and how it is possible to endure. These bits of history and the wire recordings along with Unlocking the Golden Cage, when tied together, offer us memory snapshots of people’s lives and life events that we cannot afford to forget.
Bruch, J. H. (1996). Unlocking the Golden Cage. Gurze Books.
For more context and information on the Hilde Bruch, MD Papers, check out these blog posts below: