Thea Wessley: family correspondence
Extent and Medium
2 folders
Biographical History
Thea Wessley (née Deuches) was the only child of Siegfried and Fanny Deuches from Vienna. She was sent to England in March 1939 when she was 15 years old. Thea stayed with a family in Hastings.
Her parents were separately deported to concentration camps in Poland. In 1940 her father writes from Lwow (Lemberg) whilst her mother is still in Vienna. Fanny was deported to Opole concentration camp but the circumstances of Siegfried's death are unknown. Thea's grandfather Hermann Zwicker (born in Moravia in 1866), a horse dealer, was deported to Treblinka concentration camp. Her aunt Ella Hirsch (born 1900) and her husband Arthur Hirsch and their daughter Erna were deported to Minsk. They were all murdered.Acquisition
family corresp- 2 folders
Donated July 2012
Donor: Adrian Richardson
Scope and Content
This collection contains correspondence received by Thea Wessley in England from her family and friends in Austria. Thea Wessley, a Jewish girl from Vienna, was sent to England in 1939 in order to escape Nazi persecution. Her parents, Siegfried and Fanny Deuches, were separated and perished in concentration camps in the Holocaust. Includes English summary.
Correspondence sent by her parents as well as her grandfather Hermann Zwicker, and other relations and friends. The correspondence documents the life of an Austrian refugee girl in England, the worries of her parents about her health, education and well-being, and her parents' efforts to join her in England. Also included are post-war papers and correspondence regarding the fate of family members during the Holocaust.German EnglishSystem of Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Conditions Governing Access
Open
People
- Zwicker, Hermann
- Wessley, Thea
Subjects
- Opole Lubelskie (ghetto)
- Treblinka (extermination camp)
- National Socialism
- Migration
- Holocaust
- Refugees
- Persecution
- Jews
- Concentration camps
Places
- Hastings
- Vienna
- L'viv
- Minsk
This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.