Interview with Henry Kronberg by Barbara Tabach in two sessions, February 26 and April 13, 2015. In the first session Kronberg talks about his childhood in Germany and Poland and his experience being imprisoned by the Gestapo, and transported to a concentration camp. He survived the Holocaust and met his wife, and they moved to the United States in 1946. He discusses being reunited with his sister in Las Vegas after decades of searching, and moved his family to Las Vegas in 1962. Kronberg talks about becoming involved with Jewish life here, and his wife, Lillian's involvement at Temple Beth Sholom. In the second session, Kronberg discusses purchasing Stoney's, a loan and pawn shop, including some of the clientele and merchandise. He also discusses other social and environmental concerns like anti-Semitism and water resources in Southern Nevada.
Henry Kronberg was born in 1920 and spent his early childhood in a town on the border of Poland and Germany, about 40 miles from Krakow. For years he felt uncomfortable telling his story of surviving the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. Today his name is linked to the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center in Las Vegas. And in his soft-spoken manner, Henry recalls his ordeal of loss of family and survival during this most heinous of situations through backbreaking labor and ingenuity. At the end of the war, Henry met the love of his life, Lillian, also a survivor. The two married in 1946 in Frankfurt and immigrated to New Jersey where she had relatives. He describes their difficulties and the various jobs he held until becoming an excellent baker. Then in 1962 an interesting choice took him to a bar mitzvah in Canada. While there the dinner conversation lead him to a great discovery?his sister Lala had survived and was living in Las Vegas. Soon he moved his wife and daughter to Las Vegas. His first foray into business was with his brother-in-law. However, soon it was important to be independent and to control his own destiny. He purchased a going concern, Stoney's Pawn Shop, from Dr. Alexander Coblentz, one of the city's first doctors. He became the fourth owner of Stoney's and operated it until selling it to Steven Mack in 1998. Henry and his wife were active in the Jewish community. They joined Temple Beth Sholom and became fast friends with many of the early leaders of Las Vegas and became a respected member of the secular and Jewish communities.
The Florence and Jerry Vallen Faculty Papers (approximately 1935-2017) are comprised of personal papers and research files for Florence and Jerry Vallen, the founding dean of the College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The collection includes research files and drafts for In the Right Place, which was co-authored by Florence and Jerry Vallen. The collection also includes research files and drafts for Jerry Vallen's book, Check-In Check-Out. Other materials in this collection are comprised primarily of awards commemorating Jerry Vallen for achievements with UNLV's College of Hotel Administration, press clippings, and photographic prints and slides taken by the Vallens on vacations in China and Williamsburg, Virginia.
The Bob Weinstein Papers on Compulsive Gambling (1945-2024) contain pamphlets, brochures, conference packets, promotional material, correspondence, and ephemera related to Weinstein's involvement in Gamblers Anonymous (G.A.). The collection contains G.A. recovery resources, workshop and training booklets, and meeting minutes and correspondence from Weinstein's time on the G.A. International Board of Trustees. Also contained in the collection are copies of correspondence from Jim W. (founder of Gamblers Anonymous) to Bill W. (a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) and many books and other publications related to compulsive gambling.
The Lori Lipman Brown Papers date from 1975 to 2009 and document former Nevada State Senator Lori Lipman Brown's political career. It includes correspondence and materials from Brown's service as a Nevada State Senator from 1992 to 1994, case files from her defamation lawsuit against Nevada State Senator Kathy Augustine, and papers from her work opposing the Nevada Question 2 ballot measure on same-sex marriage in 2000. The collection also contains photocopies of biographical materials and personal and publicity photographs of Brown, as well as material from her time working with local high school and commmunity theatre programs.