Metadata: Estate of Jean Nordmann
Collection
- Country:
- Switzerland
- Holding institution:
- Archives of Contemporary History at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiv für Zeitgeschichte der ETH Zürich
- Postal address:
- Hirschengraben 62, CH-8092 Zurich
- Phone number:
- +41 44 632 40 03
- Web address:
- https://www.afz.ethz.ch/
- Email:
- afz@history.gess.ethz.ch
- Reference number:
- NL Jean Nordmann
- Title:
- Estate of Jean Nordmann
- Title (official language):
- Nachlass Jean Nordmann
- Creator/accumulator:
- Nordmann, Jean
- Date(s):
- 1914/2001
- Language:
- German
- French
- Extent:
- 6 shelf metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collections documents Jean Nordmann's activities as a member of the board of management and as vice president and chairman of the SIG (Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities). It includes, for example, Nordmann’s correspondence with Willy Guggenheim, Peter Woog, Alec Plaut and others as well as his speeches as president of the Jewish Community of Fribourg.
- Archival history:
- Bluette Nordmann transferred the documents to the AfZ (Archiv für Zeitgeschichte) in 2000 and 2001. In 2011, after Bluette Nordmann's death, one shelf metre of material on Jean Nordmann was added, listed in class 6. Four archive boxes with documents on Jean Nordmann's father Isidore (1876-1957), his son Claude and his wife Bluette Nordmann were added in the same class.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Jean Nordmann, a businessman and president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), was born in Seuzach on 6 September 1908 and died in Fribourg on 21 May 1986. He grew up in Fribourg as the son of Isidore Nordmann and Alice, née Bloch. In 1940, he married Bluette Otschakowsky (1919 - 6 Nov. 2010) with whom he had two sons named Claude and François. He stayed for a while in Germany, England and France and reported in 1941 on the situation in the concentration camp of Gurs (France), which he had visited several times with his wife. In 1943, he became a member of the SIG Central Committee and from 1944 to 1980 a member of the executive board. He held many positions: Youth Department (1944-1945), Help and Reconstruction (1946-1955), Cultural and Deputy Youth Department (1956-1967). From 1968 to 1973, he was vice-president under the presidency of Georges Brunschvig and from 1973 to 1980 he himself was president of the SIG. From 1957 to 1986, Nordmann was president of the Jewish Community of Fribourg and from 1967 to 1971 he was a member of the Grand Council in Fribourg for the FDP. From 1946 to 1986, Nordmann was part of the board of the Christian-Jewish Association for Combating Anti-Semitism (CJA).
- Access points: locations:
- Fribourg
- Switzerland
- Subject terms:
- Jewish community
- Access, restrictions:
- Partially restricted. Subject to application.
- Finding aids:
- An online finding aid is available.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://onlinearchives.ethz.ch/
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Severin Holzknecht; Jewish Museum of Hohenems; 2020