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Breth family papers

Document | Digitized | Accession Number: 2018.481.1

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    Breth family papers

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    Overview

    Description
    The Breth family papers include biographical materials, correspondence, and a photograph album. The biographical materials document Czech Holocaust survivor Fred Breth and his wife and son, Adele and Steven, who fled Czechoslovakia for Sweden and America. Correspondence consists of letters between Fred and Adele and Fred’s parents, Ernst and Hermine Breth, and his sister and brother, Gertrude and Hans, who were still in Czechoslovakia. The photograph album contains photographs by Adele documenting her and Fred’s prewar travels.
    Biographical materials include birth certificates, education and employment records, citizenship and identification papers, and immigration records documenting Fred and Adele Breth. This series also includes Steven Breth’s Swedish baptismal certificate.
    Correspondence consists of letters exchanged between Fred Breth in America and his family, primarily his parents but also his siblings, in Czechoslovakia. The collection includes the original letters from Europe and carbon copies of Fred’s replies from America. The letters usually focus on news of relatives and friends, daily life, health, work, the young children, and efforts to emigrate, but some also describe threats of war, the German annexation of the Sudetenland, Jewish refugees, Aryanization, and antisemitism. The correspondence ends with the news of Hans’ deportation. This series also includes English translations of the letters along with an introduction, biographical history, chronology, and name index. The donor’s family assigned numbers to each letter in approximate chronological order, and the letters retain that numerical arrangement. The assigned numbers can help match original letters to their translations. An index of correspondents can be found at the end of file 20.
    The prewar travel photograph album contains black and white photographs Adele primarily of mountain and lake scenes.
    Date
    inclusive:  1915-2017
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Erica Noel Breth
    Collection Creator
    Breth family
    Biography
    Fred Breth (1905-1986) was born Bedřich Breth in Königinhof, Austria-Hungary (now Dvůr Králové, Czech Republic) to Arnošt (Ernst, 1861-1942) and Hermine Loewy Breth (1867-1942). Fred’s sister Gertrude Breth Soudková (1893-1943) had a daughter, Dorothea Soudková (1929-1944) in Reichenberg, Czechoslovakia. Fred’s brothers Franz (Frank, 1897-1986) and Hans (1903-1942) were also born in Dvůr Králové nad Labem. Fred’s wife, Adele Langova (Adela, 1908-1988), was born in Třešť, Czech Republic to a Catholic family.

    Fred and Adele decided to leave Czechoslovakia following the German annexation of Austria. Fred obtained his American visa on June 17, 1938, and he and Adele fled to Borås, Sweden on July 3. Fred immigrated to New York via the United Kingdom aboard the SS Ile de France, arriving on July 26. Adele gave birth to her son Steven in Borås on August 26, and they joined Fred in New York in November 1938 aboard the SS Drottningholm. Fred’s brother Franz and his wife Lena (1904-1979) left Czechoslovakia for Zagreb on August 25, 1938, then sailed from Amsterdam to Ecuador in November. The rest of their family perished in the Holocaust. Hans Breth was deported to Theresienstadt on November 30, 1941, transferred to Riga on January 9, 1942 and perished. Ernst and Hermine Breth were deported from Prague to Theresienstadt on July 23, 1942 on transport AAt. Hermine died in Theresienstadt on August 18, 1942. Ernst was transferred to Treblinka on October 19, 1942 and was killed. Gertrude and Dorothea were deported to Theresienstadt on December 17, 1942, and Gertrude died there of tuberculosis on January 17, 1943. Dorothea was transferred to Auschwitz on October 9, 1944 and perished.

    Physical Details

    Extent
    1 box
    1 oversize box
    1 oversize folder
    System of Arrangement
    The Breth family papers are arranged as a three series:

    Series 1: Biographical material, 1915-1986
    Series 2: Correspondence, 1938-1941, 2017
    Series 2: Photograph album, 1934-1936

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    Material(s) in this collection may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. You do not require further permission from the Museum to use this material. The user is solely responsible for making a determination as to if and how the material may be used.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Provenance
    Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Erica Noel Breth.
    Record last modified:
    2023-05-10 16:39:28
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn595028

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