Helen Kulka Fanta collection
Extent and Medium
folders
oversize folder
18
1
Creator(s)
- Helen Kulka Fanta
Biographical History
Helen Kulka (1907-2005) was born in Opava, Czechoslovakia. At the age of 9 she moved to Vienna, Austria, where she acquired an interest in music. The Kulka family owned several stone quarries outside the city, and though they were Jewish, the family was non-observant. In 1930, Helen moved to England to work as a nanny. Three years later, she was hired as a secretary by an export firm in Prague, whose English correspondence she handled. She worked in that position until May 1942, when she, as a Jew living in German-occupied Prague, was arrested and deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she was imprisoned until December 1943. From there, Helen was deported to Auschwitz where she was imprisoned until June 1944. She was then taken to Neuengamme before finally being sent Bergen-Belsen in March 1945, where she was liberated by British forces a month later. Though malnourished, Helen assisted the British military with administrative functions as the camp was liberated, before serving as a secretary and interpreter for the same detachment while stationed in Eutin, Germany. After the war, Helen moved to England, where she met her future Husband Erich Fanta. In 1952, the couple immigrated to the United States
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ann-Margaret Frija
Funding Note: The accessibility of this collection was made possible by the generous donors to our crowdfunded Save Their Stories campaign.
The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007 by Ann-Margaret Frija.
Scope and Content
The Helen Kulka Fanta collection contains material related to Helen Kulka Fanta, a Jewish secretary from Prague who was deported to Theresienstadt by the German authorities in 1942. She was later imprisoned at Auschwitz, Neuengamme, and Bergen-Belsen before being liberated in 1945. The collection consists primarily of identification forms, references, and other forms of verification documenting Helen Kulka as a refugee and concentration camp survivor. A diary written during her time at Bergen-Belsen is included as well. Other material includes poems collected and written, notes, and music sheets. The Helen Kulka Fanta collection contains primarily documents relating to the identification and verification of Helen Kulka as a concentration camp survivor and refugee. Included in the collection are a birth certificate, identity cards, references, curriculum vitae, certificates of identity, displaced persons verification, and copies of her passport. A diary, kept by Helen Kulka while incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, accompanied by translations, are also in the collection. Other items are music sheets and poems collected by Helen Kulka Fanta.
System of Arrangement
The Helen Kulka Fanta collection is arranged as a single series.
People
- Fanta, Helen Kulka.
- Fanta, Erich.
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Eutin (Germany)
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jewish refugees--Czech Republic.
- World War, 1939-1945--Refugees.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Opava (Czech Republic)
- Jews--Czech Republic--History--20th century.
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Holocaust survivors--Czech Republic--Prague.
Genre
- Document
- Identification cards.
- Certificates.
- Poems.
- Notes.
- Diaries.