Metadata: Estate of Moses Silberroth
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 Moses Silberroth
- Title:
- Estate of Moses Silberroth
- Title (official language):
- Nachlass Moses Silberroth
- Creator/accumulator:
- Silberroth, Moses
- Date(s):
- 1848/1996
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 2.2 shelf metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains personal documents, e.g., biographical material, private correspondence and photographs. The professional career of Moses Silberroth is reflected as well. The collection contains documents on his political and journalistic activities. The main part is made up of materials relating to his work as lawyer, including work notes, court records, witness interviews and background information. An interesting aspect of the holdings are the documents on numerous libel cases in which Moses Silberroth was involved in the 1930s and 1940s due to his commitment against conformism, Frontism and Nazism. Handwritten lists of his original legal archives that have been preserved indicate that only a remnant of the collection is extant.
- Archival history:
- The estate of Moses Silberroth was transferred to the Archives of Contemporary History (AfZ) in 1999.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Moses Silberroth, a journalist and a member of the cantonal council of Graubünden, was born in Sapohova (Galicia) on 18 August 1888 and died on 19 November 1965. He grew up in Czernowitz (Bukovina) and after graduating from high school, studied medicine and law in Vienna. In 1912, he spent time in Leysin (VD) due to a serious lung disease and in 1916 Silberroth acquired Swiss citizenship. He worked as a private tutor and employee of the newspaper "Berner Tagwacht" and passed the bar exam in the canton of Obwalden in 1917. After internships in Lucerne and Chur, he opened his own law practice in Davos.
From 1917 to 1949, Silberroth was a member of the Social Democratic Party of the Canton of Graubünden. In 1918, he was at the head of the Graubünden labour movement during the general strike. From 1931 to 1947, he was a member of the Great Council of Graubünden and during the Second World War, he was committed as lawyer and politician to Jewish refugees and in the fight against antisemitic and Frontist tendencies in Davos. For many years he was part of the editorial office of the "Volksstimme", the Social Democratic party organ of eastern Switzerland. Until his death in 1965, Moses Silberroth remained active as a respected lawyer for the poor, defender in political trials and legal representative of trade unions.
- Access points: locations:
- Graubünden
- Switzerland
- Subject terms:
- Legal records
- Personal records
- Professions
- Professions--Lawyers
- 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
