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| Format | Manuscript |
|---|---|
| Title, Manuscript | Opa's Biography [Jakob Adam, 1905-1986] |
| Date | 2014 |
| Extent of Work | 18 pages, illustrations |
| View Online | |
| Abstract | Jakob Adam was born 24 April 1905, to Johann and Wilhelmine Adam in the German colony of Neudorf, Galicia (now Nove Selo, Drohobych Raion, Lviv Oblast, Poland). The family had originated in the Rheinpfalz, or Rhenish Palatinate, region. In 1914 Jakob’s parents emigrated to America “to earn and save money.” Jakob’s grandfather, also named Jakob Adam, “stayed behind [in Neudorf] minding the small homestead and farm.” In America, the Adam family first “hired on to work on a farm in NJ, which belonged to very wealthy people by the name of Goebbles.” The family then relocated to Astoria, Long Island, New York; both father and son were employed by the Steinway Piano Manufacturing Company. Jakob formed a musical group with other workers, and developed an interest in photography from a Mr. Hauser. Jakob married in 1928, and with the scarcity of the Great Depression, Jakob and his wife moved to Neudorf. With the help of his wife, who had grown up on a farm in Katharinendorf, Bukovina, and a number of Adam cousins still living in Neudorf, Jakob thrived. He photographed life in the village and wrote letters back to his parents in Astoria, New York. In January 1940, during World War II, Neudorf’s German inhabitants were relocated as part of Nazi Germany’s “Heim ins Reich” program. The Adams received a farm in Ziegenweide near Elsenau, but Jakob decided to become a photographer, and traded the farm for a shop in Dietfurt. Jakob was drafted into the German army. After the war, the family went to Hambühren, where other families from Neudorf had settled. In 1947, Jacob’s first two children, Freddie and Martha, obtained passports as U.S. citizens, and moved to Astoria. Jakob returned to America in 1952, when his father died. Jakob Adam died in 1986, in New York. |
| Call Number | FH Adam (Digital file) |
| MKI Terms | German Americans -- New York/ Galicia |