Camillo Adler papers

Camillo Adler (1905-1985) was born in 1905 in Austria to Moritz (1874-1959) and Sara (née Reich, 1873-1954?). He had one brother, Adolph (later Anthony, b. 1908) and one sister, Golda (b. 1903?). Camillo received his law degree in Vienna, but was unable to find work there and moved to Lyon, France. He married Martha Kraus (1901-1969), daughter of Ludwig (1866-1942) and Marie Kraus (1875-1942), in 1933. Unable to find work in law, Camillo worked as a stock clerk for a silk manufacturer. Their first son, Paul (1936-2004) was born on 10 March 1936.

After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Camillo joined the French Foreign Legion. He returned to Lyon in 1940 after France signed the armistice with Germany. Their second son, Michel, was born on 22 June 1941. Facing increased persecution, the family fled to Switzerland in November 1942. Paul and Michel were initially separated from the parents, but they were reunited in the village of Neu St. Johan, Nesslau, Toggenburg district of St. Gallen. After the war, they moved to Zurich. In 1951, they immigrated to the United States.

Camillo’s parents survived the Holocaust, but Martha’s perished after they were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942.

During the war, Camillo wrote three manuscripts. Der Käfig (The Cage), in German, is a semi-autobiographical work related to life in Vienna in the 1920s. Mensch ohne Heimat (Man Without a Country) is an autobiographical work related to Adler's life in Lyon, France, from the outbreak of World War II to his enlistment in the French Foreign Legion. "Ich bin ein Fluechtling" (I am a Refugee) is an account of Adler's experiences escaping with his family from Lyon into Switzerland, and life in Swiss refugee and labor camps. Mensch ohne Heimat was published as a serial in a Swiss newspaper. The manuscripts were later discovered by his son Michel, who translated and published Mensch ohne Heimat and Ich bin ein Fluechtling together in English under the title I am a Refugee in 2012.