Book

Hannah Kastan Weiss papers

Document

The Hannah Kastan Weiss papers consist of biographical materials, correspondence, and printed materials documenting the Kastan family of Berlin, Germany, including Hannah Kastan; her father Günter, who performed forced labor at the Monowitz concentration camp; and his parents, Harry and Magdalena Kastan, who raised Hannah as their own child and protected her from deportation. Records include wartime and postwar identification papers, ration tickets, letters written from the Monowitz concentration camp, and immigration documents. Biographical materials document the lives of Hannah, Harry, and Magdalena Kastan in Berlin during World War II and following liberation and their immigration to the United States in 1947. Records include identification papers, registrations, permissions, exemptions, travel papers, immigration documents, vaccination records, ration tickets, and a photograph of Hannah just after liberation. Correspondence consists of letters and postcards sent by Günter Kastan from the Monowitz concentration camp (Auschwitz III) to his parents and daughter in Berlin from approximately 1943-1945. The authorized postcards contain brief greetings and reassurances that Günter is well. The clandestine letters relate Günter’s worries for his family and news of friends; request supplies such as food, cigarettes, clothing, soap, and writing paper; describe general conditions, work, and holidays in the camp; and ask about his daughter. Printed materials include a page from a 1947 issue of the newspaper N.Y. Staats-Zeitung und Herold containing an article about Hannah Kastan as well as sheet music and lyrics for the protest song Wir sind die Moorsoldaten.

Yellow cloth Star of David badge with the word Jude

Object

Book

Object

Post-period publication written by former prisoners of the concentration camp Buchenwald.

Pamphlet

Object

Post-period publication concerning the oppression of Nazism.

Pamphlet

Object

A post-period pamphlet concerning the concentration camp Buchenwald.

Prayer book

Object

Haggadah used by a German child in hidding during the Holocaust.

Prayer book kept in hidding during the Holocaust by a Jewish German girl

Object

The prayer book for weekdays, Sabbath and festivals, was given to Guenter Kastan on the occassion of his Bar Mitzvah in Breslau, Germany. It remained in hidding during the Holocaust with his daughter, Hanna.