Overview
- Description
- The Clara Kramer papers consist of a wartime diary written in hiding, an autograph book, biographical materials, and photographs documenting Kramer’s experience in hiding during the war as well as pre‐Holocaust friendships and postwar nursing training and work in displaced persons camps and in Israel.
Clara Kramer’s diary contains daily accounts of her life in a hidden bunker from April 1943 through their liberation written in notebooks given to her by the family’s protector, Valentin Beck. The diary describes cramped living conditions, meager food supplies, frequent threats of discovery, and the death of Kramer’s sister.
The autograph book includes autographs, messages, poems, and drawings by Kramer’s childhood friends.
Biographical materials consist of certificates and memoranda documenting Kramer’s training and service as a nurse in and around displaced persons camps in Linz, Steyr, and Bad Reichenall as well as affidavits documenting the identities and marriage of Sol Kramer’s parents, Berisch and Ethel Kramer.
Photographs depict Clara Kramer’s childhood friends and the Żółkiew synagogue. These photographs were removed from the autograph book described above. - Date
-
inclusive:
circa 1940-1951
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Clara Kramer, in memory of her sister Mania
- Collection Creator
- Clara Kramer
- Biography
-
Klara Schwarz in Żółkiew, Poland (now Zhovkva, Ukraine) in 1927 to Meir and Salka Reizfeld Schwarz. She had a sister Manja. In September 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and Zolkiew was occupied by the Soviets. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. In December 1942, the Schwarz family went into hiding in a secret bunker under the home of an ethnic German family, Valentin and Julia Beck and their daughter Ala. Manja was caught and killed when she fled the bunker during a block fire in April 1943. The region was liberated in July 1944. Clara and her family went ot a disaplced persons home in Austria where Klara met and married Sol Kramer (1920-2011). They emigrated to Israel in 1948. Clara and Sol later immigrated to the United States in 1957.
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- Diaries. Photographs.
- Extent
-
10 folders
- System of Arrangement
- The Clara Kramer papers are arranged as four series: I. Diary, 1943-1944, II. Autograph book, 1940-1941, III. Biographical materials, 1947-1951, IV. Photographs, approximately 1940-1941
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.
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Clara Kramer donated the Clara Kramer papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1994, 1999, and 2011 in memory of her sister Mania. Accessions previously cataloged as 1994.95.2, 1999.A.0138 and 2011.271.1 have been incorporated into this collection.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The accessibility of this collection was made possible by the generous donors to our crowdfunded Save Their Stories campaign. - Special Collection
-
Save Their Stories
- Record last modified:
- 2024-04-11 13:18:53
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn77708
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-
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Also in Clara Kramer collection
The collection consist of one piece of Łódź ghetto scrip, a wartime diary, an autograph book, biographical materials, and photographs relating to the experiences of Clara Kramer during the Holocaust while in hiding, as well as pre-Holocaust friendships and postwar nursing training and work in displaced persons camps.
Date: approximately 1940-1951
Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 2 mark note acquired by a Polish Jewish survivor
Object
Łódź ghetto scrip, 2 mark note, acquired by Klara Schwarz (later Clara Kramer) at an unknown date; origin is also unknown as she was never a Łódź Ghetto resident. After Nazi Germany occupied Łódź in September 1939, it was renamed Litzmannstadt. When the ghetto was set up, currency was confiscated in exchange for Quittungen [receipts] that could be exchanged only in the ghetto. Klara was 12 when her hometown of Zolkiew, Poland, (later Zhovkva, Ukraine) was occupied. In December 1942, Klara, her sister Manja, and her parents went into hiding in a bunker under the home of an ethnic German family, Valentin and Julia Beck and daughter Ala. In April 1943, Manja sister was caught and killed by the Germans when she fled the bunker during a block fire. The region was liberated in July 1944. Klara went to a displaced person' camp in Austria, where she married and then emigrated to Israel in 1948.
