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Wiener Library

Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 1556 WL 578

Held at: Wiener Library

Title: Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia

Date(s): 1939-1944

Level of description: collection

Extent: 352 frames

Name of creator(s): Mayer | Gerda Springer | Erich | b 1908 | surgeon
Feuereisen | Walter | fl 1940 | Chief medical officer of the Jewish community, Prague

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Gerda Meyer (née Stein) left Prague by plane with 19 other Jewish children under the guardianship of Trevor Chadwick , who established a home for refugee children in Swanage, Dorset. Her parents, originally from Karlsbad, write to her from Prague and later (her father) from Lwow (Lemberg). Whilst his fate is not known - he was last heard of by Gerda in June 1940 in Lemberg, he is said to have died in a Russian camp near Moscow, her mother, Erna, died at Auschwitz.

Dr Erich Springer was born in Mariánské Láznĕ, in 1908; he attended secondary school in that town and in Planá, studied medicine in Prague, graduating in 1933. He then worked as surgeon at the clinic of Professor Schloffer. He was deported to Terezin in Transport AK II with a thousand able bodied persons on 4 December 1941 in Terezin from Prague, which included another 15 medical doctors. He was given the task of medical supervision of the women's barracks. After liberation in 1945 he returned from Terezin and became head physician at the Rumburk hospital, director of the District Institute of National health, and regional surgeon. He has received numerous rewards for his work.

Dr Walter Feuereisen was the Chief Medical Officer of the Jewish Kultusgemeinde, Prague, who later became a specialist in tropical medicine and the chief medical officer for the Jewish community in Prague.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Microfilms of papers relating to Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, 1939-1944, comprising papers of Gerda Mayer papers, notably correspondence and Red Cross telegrammes with her parents in Prague, 1939-1940 and an extract from her father's diary. Papers of Dr Erich Springer comprising note books containing the medical case notes of Terezin inmates treated by Dr Springer and others whilst an inmate and surgeon in Terezin (Theresienstadt). Correspondence and papers of the Chief Medical Officer of the Jewish Kultusgemeinde (Jewish community), Prague, Dr Walter Feuereisen including official paperwork reflecting Feuereisen's role, personal correspondence from family and friends in Terezin and Lodz and an undated curriculum vitae.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: German, English

System of arrangement:

Filmed by collection in (sometimes reverse) chronolgical order.

Conditions governing access:

Open

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.

Physical characteristics:

Microfilm

Finding aids:

Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Gerda Mayer; Dr Erich Springer; E. Fenner (brother of Dr Walter Feuereisen).

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Wiener Collection, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: November 2007


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Concentration camps | War crimes | Humanitarian law
Emigration | Migration
Jews | Religious groups
Occupied territories | Humanitarian law
Refugees | Migrants

Personal names
Feuereisen | Walter | fl 1940 | Chief medical officer of the Jewish community, Prague
Mayer | Gerda | fl 1940 | Jewish refugee
Springer | Erich | b 1908 | surgeon

Corporate names
Lodz ghetto, Poland
Theresienstadt concentration camp x Terezin

Places
Prague | Czechoslovakia | Eastern Europe
Europe