Olga Klein Astrachan papers
Extent and Medium
folders
5
Creator(s)
- Olga Klein Astrachan
Biographical History
Olga Klein Astrachan (1907-1999) was born in Saint Petersburg to Nikolas and Bronislava Klein. Her family escaped Russia during the revolution, and she was raised in Switzerland, Belgium, and Germany. She studied fine arts in Berlin, moved to Paris in 1933, and married Lazar (Loca) Astrachan (1903-1980) in 1937. In June 1940, Olga and her family fled to Biarritz, Pau, and eventually Toulouse. Olga and her husband were sent to Font-Romeu but returned to Toulouse, and her parents were sent to a forced residence in Carbonne. They survived the war with the help of friends and neighbors, and Olga returned to Paris and resumed her art following the war. Lazar's father, Nissan Astrachan, died of hunger in the Otwock ghetto, and the rest of his family also perished in the Holocaust.
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.
Olga Klein Astrachan donated the Olga Klein Astrachan papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1996, 1997, and 1998. The accessions formerly cataloged as 1996.94, 1997.A.0208, and 1998.A.0075 have been incorporated into this collection.
Scope and Content
The Olga Klein Astrachan papers consist of original and photocopied biographical and photographic materials and personal narratives documenting Russian‐born Olga Klein Astrachan and her family’s survival in France during the Holocaust. The papers also include postcards from her husband’s relatives confined to the Otwock ghetto and printed materials documenting German‐occupied France and French collaboration. Biographical materials include identification and registration papers for the Astrachan and Klein families in France, receipts documenting efforts to send help to Astrachan family members in the Otwock ghetto, and a letter documenting Olga Klein Astrachan’s work for the French resistance. Olga Klein Astrachan’s personal narratives document her memories, friends, difficult decisions, and dangerous moments she spent living under the German occupation in France. The photographs in this collection are reproductions depicting Olga Klein Astrachan, her father‐in‐law Nissan Astrachan, her husband Loca Astrachan, and their friends Marcus, Sonia, and Genia Schapiro who were deported from Toulouse in 1944 and killed in the Holocaust. Postcards from Nissan Astrachan and Bronja Bielkin in the Otwock ghetto were smuggled to Olga and Lazar Astrachan in France via Switzerland and describe hunger, cold, illness, need, and Nissan Astrachan’s death in the ghetto. Printed materials document German‐occupied France and French collaboration.
System of Arrangement
The Olga Klein Astrachan papers are arranged as a single series: I. Olga Klein Astrachan papers, approximately 1910-1998
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Olga Klein Astrachan
People
- Olga Klein Astrachan
Subjects
- Paris (France)
- Jews--Russia (Federation)--Saint Petersburg.
- Toulouse (France)
- Jewish ghettos--Poland--Otwock.
- Jewish refugees--France--Paris.
- Jewish refugees--France--Toulouse.
- Otwock (Poland)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland.
- Jews--Poland--History--20th century.
Genre
- Document
- Photographs.