Walter Saunders papers

Walter Saunders (1922-1996) was born Walter Schatzker in Vienna, Austria, to Paul and Klara Schatzker. He had one brother, Kurt, born in 1919. Walter grew up to become an electrician, while Kurt became a tailor. Soon after the Kristallnacht, the brothers obtained visas to the United States. They traveled first to Merksplas, Belgium, where Walter volunteered his serves at the refugee camp there. They later traveled to England, where again Walter served at first as an electrician and later a nurse at the Kitchener camp for refugees. In 1940, the brothers sailed on the Volendam to New York City in 1940. There Walter would meet Mildred Goldstein, whom he later married. While Walter was living in the United States, his parents, who remained behind in Europe, were arrested and placed in Les Milles and Gurs concentration camps, before being sent to Auschwitz in 1942, where they both were killed.