Overview
- Description
- The collection documents the Holocaust-era experiences of Stephen Kornreich, originally of Munkács, Hungary (Mukacheve, Ukraine), including his upbringing in Munkács, his life and career as an architect in Palestine from 1933-1938, and his service in the United States Army Air Corps. Included are identification papers, education and employment papers, immigration documentation, a personal narrative from his brother Beno Korda, an oral history transcript, and photographs.
Biographical material includes education documents from Technische Lehranstalt Bodenbach, Stephen’s military service in Munkács, Czech passports, Palestinian identification papers, Stephen’s membership in the Symbolische Grossloge von Deutschland im Exil, and a marriage certificate from Stephen’s father Ignatz’s second marriage to Blanka Hellermann in 1921.
Immigration papers consist of materials related to Stephen’s immigration to the United States in 1939 including RMS Queen Mary passenger lists and postcards, a health certificate, immigrant identification card, and United States Army induction paperwork. Also included is a 1946 letter from Stephen to the United States Consulate in Prague regarding affidavits for his brother Joseph Korda (under the name Markus Kornreich) and his wife Alzbeta.
Correspondence consists of a pre-war postcard sent to Stephen in Palestine; copies of two wartime letters sent to Stephen from his sister Blanka’s husband Tibor Ney in 1944, along with a translation and accompanying letter from 1997, and a 1960 letter to Stephen from Hilary Goldberg of the British ORT.
Writings consist of a transcript of an oral history interview with Stephen and a copy of his brother Beno Korda’s memoir. The memoir began as a series of letters to his niece Carole Kornreich in 1993 about his family in pre-war Munkács and his experiences as a forced-laborer in Hungary during World War II.
Photographs include pre-war depictions of Stephen and his family including his father’s second wife Blanka and his sister Sula. Also includes depictions of Stephen while serving in the United States Army Air Corps. - Date
-
inclusive:
circa 1900-2018
bulk: 1921-1946
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Carole Kornreich
- Collection Creator
- Stephen Kornreich
- Biography
-
Stephen Kornreich (1912-1989) was born in Munkács, Hungary (Mukacheve, Ukraine) to Ignatz Kornreich (1880-1944) and Sheindl Schoenfeld (1884-1916). He had five siblings: Sarah (Sula, 1905-1944), Marcus Joseph (nicknamed Joska, later Joseph Korda, 1907-1993?), Blanka (later Blanka Kornreich Ney, 1908-1944), Bela (later Bert Korda, 1910-1992), and Benedict (later Beno Korda, 1914-2010). His mother died giving birth to his sixth sibling, who also died during childbirth. Stephen’s father remarried to Blanka Kellermann (1895-1944) in 1921, and they had two more children: Andor (1927-1944) and Miklos (1933-1944). The family primarily spoke Hungarian at home with Sheindl, and Yiddish after Ignatz married Blanka. Ignatz was a businessman.
Stephen attended architectural school in Bodenbach, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic). He went to Palestine in 1933, on a six-week visa, but decided to stay and work as an architect, first in Tel Aviv, and later in Jerusalem. In February 1939 Stephen immigrated to the United States aboard the RMS Queen Mary. He worked as an architect in New York, and in 1942 he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. He served in the Pacific Theatre in New Guinea, Australia, and Philippines. In 1943, Stephen married Lisbeth Modley, a Jewish refugee from Austria, and after the war they had two daughters. After he was discharged in December 1945 he resumed his architecture career in New York. In 1951 the Kornreich family moved to Maryland.
Stephen tried to get his family to leave Europe, but his family remained in Munkács. His father; stepmother; two half-brothers, Andor and Miklos; brother Joska and his wife Piri (née Moskovics) and son George (1939-1944); brother Bela; sister Sula, her husband Ernest Rosenfeld, and their son Norbert (1935-1944); and sister Blanka, her husband Tibor Ney (1906-1991), and their son Tomas (1937-1944) were all deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Only Joska, Bela, and Tibor Ney survived. Stephen and Lisbeth sponsored Joska and Bela’s immigration to the United States. After they arrived in the U.S., they changed their names to Joseph Korda and Bert Korda respectively.
Stephen’s other brother, Benedict, was in Prague during the start of World War II. He fled to Budapest, Hungary in December 1942. In 1943 he was conscripted as a forced-laborer in Košice and other locales. He later fled the labor battalion and joined the Russian Army. He returned to Hungary with them. After the war, he married a non-Jewish Czech woman and they lived in Prague until June 1968 when they fled to Edmonton, Canada. He changed his name to Beno Korda.
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- Personal narratives. Letters. Photographs.
- Extent
-
1 box
1 oversize folder
- System of Arrangement
- The collection is arranged as five series.
Series 1. Biographical material, 1921-1970
Series 2. Immigration, 1938-1946
Series 3. Correspondence, 1933-1997
Series 4. Writings, 1981-2018
Series 5. Photographs, circa 1900-circa 2008
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.
- Copyright Holder
- Ms. Carole Kornreich
Keywords & Subjects
- Geographic Name
- United States--Emigration and immigration. Palestine--Emigration and immigration. Mukacheve (Ukraine)
- Personal Name
- Kornreich, Stephen. Kornreich, Ignatz, 1880-1944. Kornreich, Sheindl, 1884-1916. Kornreich, Sarah, 1905-1944. Korda, Joseph, 1907-1933? Korda, Bert, 1910-1992. Kornreich, Blanka, 1908-1944. Korda, Beno, 1914-2010. Kellermann, Blanka, 1895-1944. Kornreich, Andor, 1927-1944. Kornreich, Miklos, 1933-1944.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Carole Kornreich in 2019.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-02-24 14:37:53
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn702399
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-
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Also in Stephen Kornreich collection
The collection consists of documents, correspondence, papers, ephemera, photographs, and a leather travel documents pouch related to Stephen Kornreich [donor's father], a Hungarian Jew who left for Palestine in 1933 and later immigrated to the United States in 1939. Additional materials are donor's audio-recorded interview with her father Stephen Kornreich, from 1981-1984, and a partial transcript of the interview. Also includes a memoir that Stephen Kornreich's brother Beno Korda wrote for, and gave to, the donor.
Portfolio
Object
Travel documents pouch related to Stephen Kornreich, a Hungarian Jew who left for Palestine in 1933 and later immigrated to the United States in 1939.
Oral history interview with Stephen Kornreich
Oral History
Stephen Kornreich discusses his emigration from Hungary in 1933 to Palestine and later immigration to the United States in 1939.