“moving and valuable”, “rare and poignant”


In 1943 my great-grandmother, with two of her sons, my great uncles, were deported from Vienna in Austria to Theresienstadt in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. From there, they could write to a great aunt who was hiding in Vienna (where she was able to survive the war and Holocuast (and where she had a daughter)). Thanks are due to the Wiener Holocaust Library for the scans. Here’s what the British historian, Martin Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015), had to say about the letters:

Here is the first of two letters, in German and then in translation. If you right click on an image it should be possible to open it in a new tab where a larger image may be viewable. If you stay on this page, be prepared to scroll a lot….















Here’s the second letter…..











A footnote: Ernst survived Auschwitz but took his own life back in Vienna a few years later. It has been asked if he really survived?
