How Frances Perkins Helped the von Trapp Family Singers Stay in America

By 1938 the von Trapp family singers were in danger in Austria. Baron von Trapp, a celebrated Austrian sea captain of World War I, had turned down a commission in the navy of the Third Reich. His eldest son, Rupert, had refused to serve the Nazis as a doctor. And according to the memoir of his daughter Agathe von Trapp, the whole family turned down, together, an invitation to sing on Munich radio for Hitler's birthday.

How they came to stay in the United States is told partly in immigration and citizenship records at the National Archives at Boston, which Prologue magazine used in 2005 for "The Real Story of the von Trapp Family." Papers at the National Archives at College Park add another chapter: the immigration correspondence of Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, which suggests she had a hand in the family's case.

The Secretary who oversaw immigration

Perkins became Secretary of Labor in 1933, less than two months after the Nazis took power in Germany, and through the 1930s the Immigration and Naturalization Service answered to her. Her files hold a series of letters from American citizens writing to her about refugees. The von Trapps were one case among hundreds.

Detained at Ellis Island

The family left Austria for Italy in the summer of 1938 and then came to the United States on temporary visitors' visas. After a short stay they went on to Scandinavia for a singing tour.

They returned in the fall of 1939 for another tour, and this time officials at Ellis Island held them. Maria von Trapp had cried out, "Oh, I am so glad to be here—I never want to leave again!" The Department of State, which shared some say over immigration with the Department of Labor, had taken the view that extending visitors' visas again and again went against American immigration law.

In her memoir, Agathe wrote that the other detainees cheered when the family was let go after three days, because a release was rare on Ellis Island. She credited a kind friend in Pennsylvania whom they had met on their first tour. That friend was most likely Gertrude Ely, who also knew Perkins.

Three letters in March 1940

The correspondence follows the case:

• March 12, 1940: Ely wrote to Perkins, enclosing a sheaf of forms the Baron had filled out for his family and asking that their visitors' visas be extended by six months.
• March 15, 1940: Perkins asked the Commissioner of Immigration, in a memorandum, to see the family safely through.
• March 19, 1940: Ely wrote back that the Baron hoped to thank Perkins for what she had done.

Memorandum to the Commissioner of Immigration, March 15, 1940. National Archives Identifier 6600095.

The family became American citizens nearly a decade later. The Baron's calling card is still in Perkins's correspondence file at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.

Baron von Trapp's calling card. National Archives Identifier 6600095.

Sources

• National Archives, Pieces of History, "Frances Perkins aided the von Trapp Family Singers"; rewritten in hubnx's own words. Documents: National Archives Identifier 6600095.
• Prologue, "The Real Story of the von Trapp Family" (2005).