Kurt Gutfreund papers
Loading
Overview
- Description
- The Kurt Gutfreund papers include biographical materials, Theresienstadt postcards and receipts, photographs, and a clipping. The Theresienstadt material documents Kurt Gutfreund’s imprisonment in the Theresienstadt concentration camp from 1943-1945 with his mother Hildegard. Postcards and receipts primarily document packages Hildegard’s sister sent them in Theresienstadt. Some of the postcards include coded messages from Hildegard in the addressee field requesting specific foods in the next package (for example “Dear Onion” to indicate she wanted onions). Additional postcards from the Gutfreunds and others in Theresienstadt provide general information about their lives in the camp. The collection also includes a Czech registration and repatriation certificate issued to Kurt following the Holocaust and a certificate documenting Hildegard’s classification as Jewish by the Nazi regime based on her maternal grandparent’s religion. Photographs depict Kurt and his parents before the war. One of the photographs and a clipping depict Kurt’s mother when she was featured among “the most beautiful saleswomen in Vienna” in the Austrian cultural magazine Die Bühne.
- Date
-
inclusive:
circa 1920-1945
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Kurt Gutfreund
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of Kurt Gutfreund - Collection Creator
- Kurt Gutfreund
- Biography
-
Kurt Gutfreund was born January 6, 1938 in Vienna, Austria to Heinrich (1899-1942) and Hildegard Grasel Gutfreund (1905-1988). Heinrich was Jewish and was deported to Maly Trostinets, near Minsk, on June 9, 1942 and killed six days later. Kurt and Hildegard went into hiding but were deported to Theresienstadt in January 1943. Hildegard worked cutting mica in the “glimmer factory,” and the two remained at Theresienstadt until it was liberated in 1945. Kurt’s unmarried aunt Renee Grasel, who was eight years younger than Hildegard and had become a Catholic, was able to send packages of food and clothing to her sister and nephew in Theresienstadt. After liberation, Kurt and his mother hitchhiked to Prague and then returned to Vienna in August. He immigrated to the United States in 1958 and settled in Chicago.
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- Correspondence. Photographs.
- Extent
-
14 folders
- System of Arrangement
- The Kurt Gutfreund papers are arranged as a single series.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- The donor, source institution, or a third party has asserted copyright over some or all of the material(s) in this collection. 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
- Mr. Kurt Gutfreund
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Jews--Austria--Vienna. Jewish children in the Holocaust. Concentration camp inmates--Czech Republic--Correspondence.
- Geographic Name
- Vienna (Austria) Terezin (Ustecky kraj, Czech Republic)
- Personal Name
- Gutfreund, Kurt, 1938-
- Corporate Name
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Kurt Gutfreund donated his papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2002 and 2019. Accessions 2002.212.1 and 2019.364.1 have been incorporated into this collection.
- Primary Number
- 2002.212.2
- Record last modified:
- 2023-06-09 16:44:50
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn711079
Additional Resources
Download & Licensing
In-Person Research
- Available for Research
- Plan a Research Visit
-
Request in Shapell Center Reading Room
Bowie, MD
