- Description
- The Deutsch family papers include biographical materials, correspondence, and photographs documenting Stella Deutsch’s family and their immigration to the United States, her Pollitzer and Gerova relatives’ survival in Žilina and Vienna, and her parents’ deportation to Theresienstadt.
Documents include Stella Deutsch’s passport, a postcard to Stella from the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, her Austrian social security card, three French ten franc notes, correspondence, and black and white photographs.
Correspondence includes letters from Stella Deutsch’s aunt and uncle Irma and Janko Gerova, another uncle and aunt Illos and Berta Pollitzer, and her parents Berthold and Sophie Storch. Letters from the Gerovas describe their hiding in the forest during the last months of the war, their postwar lives in Žilina, Irma’s loneliness, and the couple’s gratitude for the parcels the Deutsch family sent them. Letters from the Pollitzers describe their wartime and postwar lives in Vienna and news of relatives. A letter and postcard from Berthold and Sophie Storch addressed to the Pollitzers date from around the time of their deportation to Theresienstadt. Letters from friends and family include a note to Isidor Pollitzer indicating Berthold and Sophie Storch had been transported to Theresienstadt, a postcard from Berta Pollitzer to Berthold Storch at Theresienstadt, an envelope from J. Glassman, and letters from Rosa Sigmund, W. M. Pollitzer, and Ernst Deutsch describing their wartime and postwar experiences.
Photographs depict Illos and Berta Pollitzer, a group including a young Hans Günther Deutsch holding an accordion, a family home in Kunčice, Sophie and Berthold Storch, and unidentified people, possibly family members, in 19th century clothing.
- Date
-
inclusive:
1865-1972
- Collection Creator
- Deutsch family
- Biography
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Harry Deutsch was born in 1938 to a German family living in Katowice. He immigrated to the United States in April 1939 with his mother, Stella Deutsch (1901-1997), twin sister, Helga Meta, and older brother, Hans Günther. His father followed later. Stella Deutsch's parents, Berthold and Sophie Storch, had been living in Čeladná. In September 1942 they were deported from Ostrava to Theresienstadt. The following month they were deported to Treblinka where they were killed.