Augusta Treulich Wrchovszká and Alexander Wrchovszky papers
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Alexander Wrchovszky
- Augusta Treulich Wrchovszká
Biographical History
Augusta Treulich Wrchovszká (1888-1944) was born in Mělník, Czechoslovakia to Samuel and Ernestine Treulich. She married Alexander Wrchovszky, and evangelical Christian, in 1923, and gave birth to her son, also named Alexander Wrchovszky, in 1925. The family bought a house in Znojmo in 1929, and Augusta's husband died in 1935. She was deported to Theresienstadt in December 1942 and then to Auschwitz in October 1944, where she was killed. From September 1944 to May 1945 Alexander was interned in a camp for children of mixed marriages at Bystřice. He moved to Vienna after the war and became an Austrian citizen.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received these papers from Alexander Wrchovsky in April 2001.
Scope and Content
The Augusta Treulich Wrchovszká and Alexander Wrchovszky papers contain biographical materials, correspondence, and subject files documenting the effects of anti‐Semitic laws on the Wrchovszky family in occupied Czechoslovakia, Alexander Wrchovszky’s internment at a camp for Jews of mixed parentage at Bystřice, the deportation of Augusta Treulich Wrchovszká to Theresienstadt, and her death at Auschwitz. Most of the records are accompanied by annotated translations created by Alexander Wrchovszky. Biographical materials include birth, marriage, and death certificates, identity papers, guardianship records, school records, and papers related to Alexander Wrchovszky’s internment at Bystřice. Correspondence primarily includes postcards written by Augusta Treulich Wrchovszká at Theresienstadt to her son, a transcription of a letter he sent to her, and postcards she sent him indicating she had received his parcels. Additional correspondence includes letters documenting Alexander Wrchovszky’s search for her after her death, a 1995 letter from a historian describing his mother’s fate, and a 1995 letter from the Terezin Initiative Foundation thanking him for his donation. Subject files document Augusta Treulich Wrchovszká and Alexander Wrchovszky’s citizenship and residency status, the order for Jews to wear the yellow star, the registration of Augusta Treulich Wrchovszká’s property, the forced sale of her home and jewelry, preparations for her deportation to Theresienstadt, and licenses Alexander Wrchovszky obtained to send his mother parcels in Theresienstadt. These files also contain a Nazi propaganda sticker with a picture of a Jewish star and a German caption that reads: "Whoever wears this symbol is an enemy of our Volk.”
System of Arrangement
The Augusta Treulich Wrchovszká and Alexander Wrchovszky papers are arranged as three series: I. Biographical materials, 1920-2001, II. Correspondence, 1943-2001, III. Subject files, 1920-2001.
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Children of interfaith marriage--Czechoslovkia.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Christian converts from Judaism.
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Mělník (Czech Republic)
- Brandýs nad Labem (Czech Republic)
- Znojmo (Czech Republic)
- Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Czechoslovakia.
- Bohemia and Moravia (Protectorate, 1939-1945)
Genre
- Document