Fried and Faktor family papers

Ann Fried Buchsbaum was born on 30 April 1923 in Vienna, Austria as Anni Fried, the daughter of Bernard (Judka) Fried and Laura (née Dickmann) Fried. Her father was originally from Russia, and worked in Vienna for a shoe manufacturer, while her mother, who worked as a milliner, had come from Stanisławow, Poland (present-day Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). At the age of 15, and following the German annexation of Austria, the Frieds were able to send their daughter to live in the Netherlands in December 1938, with the help of a family friend. For most of the next year, she lived in “Huis Overvoorde,” a dormitory for girls from the ages of 4 to 16, in Rijswijk, near The Hague. A committee of women oversaw the dormitory, including Ruth Warburg Neu, a clinical psychologist and counselor. While living there, Ann, being one of the older girls, worked as a housekeeper, and also travelled repeatedly to the United States consulate in Rotterdam, seeking a visa, which she eventually obtained. In August 1939, she left Europe, setting sail on the Ile-de-France, and upon arrival in New York, went to live with the family of her father’s brother, Abraham Fried, in the Bronx. Shortly after her arrival, she met another refugee from Austria, Walter Buchsbaum, who she eventually married in 1944, while he was serving in the U.S. Army. The Buchsbaums had one son, Robert (born 1950), and settled in Queens. Shortly after Ann left Vienna, her parents divorced, and were able to emigrate, with Laura travelling to London, where she worked as a maid, and Bernard to Palestine. It was in London that Laura met Alois Faktor, an émigré from Czechoslovakia who was serving in that country’s government-in-exile, and they married around 1940. Following the war, they returned to Czechoslovakia, living in Prague, before immigrating to Canada (although Laura had tried to immigrate to the United States), where they lived the remainder of their lives. Bernard also remarried, and died in Israel in 1950, without Ann ever having seen him following her own emigration in 1938. The remaining members of Laura’s family who stayed in Austria were murdered during the Holocaust, including Laura’s brother and Ann’s uncle, Julius Dickmann, the noted Marxist political theoretician, to whom Ann was especially close. Dickmann, who was deported to Belzec in 1942, sent Ann several postcards describing his experiences in Vienna in the months leading up to his deportation.

Laura (née Dickmann) Fried met Alois Faktor, an émigré from Prague, Czechoslovakia who was serving in that country’s government-in-exile, in London, and they married around 1940. Following the war, they lived in first in Prague and then immigrated to Canada.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Anne Fried Buchsbaum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Robert Buchsbaum

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Gift of Ann Fried Buchsbaum, 2016, with accretions by her and her son Robert Buchsbaum in 2016 and 2017. 2016.370.3 incorporates 2016.370.1, 2017.176.1, and a 2016 accretion.