Marion Rosenthal Biel Collection

This collection contains the papers of Marion Rosenthal Biel and her husband Frederick (Fritz) Biel, as well as including some papers of other members of the Rosenthal and Biel families. Much of the collection centers on Marion and Frederick's lives during the 1940s, with papers that provide details of Marion's life as an immigrant in England, Wales, and New York and Frederick's work as a military interpreter during World War II in Germany. Photographs of Marion as a child and papers that pertain to other family members, especially their parents, provide more material on their backgrounds. The collection includes diaries, military documentation, photographs and a photo album, a small amount of correspondence, family members' official documents, and various other papers.

Prominent in this collection are papers that focus on Marion and Frederick Biel's lives during the 1940s. In Series I, which holds the papers of the Rosenthal family, will be found two diaries by Marion with daily entries that describe details of her life in England and Wales, her journey to New York, and her first months in New York. Series I additionally holds some of her official documents and an album of her childhood photos, including one photo from 1939 that shows Marion going to high school in Bedford, England. Series II, which holds the papers of the Biel family, contains five folders that pertain to Frederick Biel's work as part of a military intelligence interpreters team in the U.S. Army. These papers include documents relating to his rank, promotion, induction, and separation from the army. Notable are the reports on German locations he wrote as head of his team, with information about the work of denazification, threats faced by Allied forces, the attitude of the German populace toward the American soldiers, and many other details.

Papers of other family members, including Marion's parents and Frederick Biel's mother and brother, will also be found in Series I and II. Three folders in Series I contain the papers of Carl and Elly Rosenthal, Marion's parents. Their papers include family correspondence, educational papers of Carl Rosenthal, and official documents. Other family members' papers in this series include those of Emil and Sara Rosenthal, Marion's paternal grandparents, and of Karl Rosenthal. Series II contains some letters sent by Frederick to his parents and grandmother as well as papers on Jacques Brichta, his maternal grandfather. Drawings and sketches in Series II were made by Hans and Frederick Biel. Among the papers of Series III is a large folder of family photographs, nearly all of which are unidentified.