Hugo and Gretel Klein: correspondence

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 1556 WL 953
Held at	: Wiener Library   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/ ›
Full 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 & 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

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

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Samantha Velumyl.

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:
March 2008