Kurt Moser diary
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Creator(s)
- Kurt Moser
Biographical History
Kurt Moser (1922-1943) was born in Hannover to Ernst and Margarete Moser. After Kristallnacht, Kurt and his sister Edith were entrusted to the Comité d’Assistance aux Enfants Juifs Refugiés in Belgium. Following the invasion of Belgium, he fled south, finding refuge in the abandoned Château de la Hille in Montégut-Plantaurel. In June 1943, he was arrested while attempting to flee to Portugal via Spain, and in July he was deported via Drancy to Auschwitz where he died of typhus. Kurt’s parents fled to England in 1939 and were interned as enemy aliens on the Isle of Man. Kurt’s sister, Edith Moser Lefort (1924-1989), fled to Switzerland in 1943 and joined her mother in California in 1948. Ernst Moser drowned in 1941 en route to Canada.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Warren G. LeFort
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Funding Note: The accessibility of this collection was made possible by the generous donors to our crowdfunded Save Their Stories campaign.
Warren Lefort donated the Kurt Moser diary to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2008.
Scope and Content
The Kurt Moser diary documents Moser’s experiences at the Château de la Hille in France (Ariège) and details his planning for escape to Spain and Portugal. The diary describes life at the castle, his attempts to escape to Switzerland, his capture and brief imprisonment, his work on a farm, efforts to find a guide to Portugal, his preparations for escape including obtaining travel documents, and his fears about deportation to Poland. It is believed that the last entry in the diary was made by Kurt’s friend Walter Kaniuk.
System of Arrangement
The Kurt Moser diary is arranged as a single series: I. Kurt Moser diary, 1943
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Mr. Warren G. Lefort
Subjects
- Jews--Germany--Hannover.
- World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--France.
- Hille (Montégut-Plantaurel, France)
- Jewish refugees--France--Montégut-Plantaurel--Diaries.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--France--Montégut-Plantaurel--Personal narratives.
Genre
- Document
- Diaries.