Kate Fielding collection
Extent and Medium
2 boxes
Biographical History
The Lichtensterns were Viennese Jews who escaped Austria for the UK in the late 1930s. Victor Lichtenstern (1873-1957) was a lawyer who married Olga Löw (1883-1980); both were originally born in present-day Czechia. They had two children, Edith (b. 1906) and Käthe (1910-2009). Käthe was the first to travel to the UK; the family which supported her helped her family come to London. After marrying in the UK, Käthe took on the name Kate Fielding.
Many members of Olga’s family did not escape the continent before the outbreak of the Second World War. Her father Carl Löw (1857-1942) killed himself in Brünn when he received his deportation order. Her brother Hermann Löw, who had been Victor’s partner in a Viennese legal practice, escaped to France with his wife Erna. After the fall of France, they were deported to Auschwitz, as was Erna’s mother Minna Bernstein. Hermann was murdered while Erna and Minna survived.
Acquisition
Donor: Marian Fielding
Scope and Content
The bulk of the collection consists of the personal papers of Kate Fielding née Käthe Lichtenstern. These include vital records and identity papers, various accounts of her life, her poetry and prose, her doctorate and related materials, letters to her family in Vienna sent from London and letters she received, many concerning her relatives captured by the Nazis.
In addition there are materials belonging to her sister Edith, father Victor and mother Olga, as well as relatives still on the continent: her grandfather Carl Löw, uncle Hermann Löw, aunt Erna Löw and Erna’s mother Minna Bernstein. Much of this is correspondence.
The collection also contains photographs of the Lichtenstern family and digitised items (above all, letters from Victor to Olga before they married). It arrived with a set of objects (mostly Habsburg militaria), which have been catalogued and described separately here.
Conditions Governing Access
Open