IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1556 WL 953
Held at: Wiener Library
Title: Hugo and Gretel Klein: correspondence
Date(s): 1942
Level of description: collection
Extent: 1 file
Name of creator(s): Klein | Hugo | fl 1942 Klein | Gretel | fl 1942
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Unknown.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of Hugo and Gretel Klein, 1942, comprise translations and copies of the last letters written by Hugo and Gretel Klein of Bad Neustadt, to their children, who they sent to the USA for safety during World War Two.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: German and English
System of arrangement:
Arranged in original order.
Conditions governing access:
Open
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
Finding aids:
A detailed description exists on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Accruals:
Archival history:
This collection comprises the literal translation of letters written in old German Gothic script by the parents of Kay Fyne and her brothers and sister. The letters were left with non-Jewish neighbours and friends of the parents and were only discovered in the early 1950s by Kay's brother, Bob (Bertyl), who was an officer in the US army stationed in Germany. At the time he wanted to visit the small town of Neustadt in Bavaria, where the family lived before the outbreak of World War Two.
The letters eventually came into the possession of Kay's nephew who was able to make copies of the originals and distributed them amongst her brothers and sister. Kay's brother-in-law, Kurt Klein, who lives in Seattle, Washington, managed to decypher a lot of the script, which Kay has used to help in her own interpretation of how she felt her parents would wish to express themselves. She has, however, tried to keep as near as possible to the actual written style. A lot of the references and names in the letters refer to members of both her father's and mother's families and their friends and neighbours.
Immediate source of acquisition:
Deposited by the family in 1993.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Compiled by Samantha Velumyl.
Date(s) of descriptions: March 2008