Friedrich Günser correspondence
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Creator(s)
- Friedrich Günser
Biographical History
Friedrich Günser, a native of Vienna, Austria, was interned by the British as an enemy alien after his escape from Austria to Britain at the start of World War II. He had apparently been a baker in Vienna, and his father owned a bakery there. He was interned at Camp Mooragh on the Isle of Man in 1940, before being sent to Australia in the fall of 1940, where he was interned at Camp Hay in New South Wales, and later at Camp Tatura in Victoria. He immigrated to Palestine in August 1943 via the Waipawa. His wife and son, Lilly (Cölestine, born in Lwow, 1905) and Heinrich (born in Vienna, 1933), remained behind in Vienna, hoping to obtain an affidavit to come to the United States, which she had planned to do by travelling across Russia in 1940. Those plans were never realized, and she appears to have been deported to a labor camp before being sent to Theresienstadt in September 1942, and to Auschwitz in January 1943, where both she and her son were subsequently killed. Günser's parents, Jakob (born 1875) and Cäcilie (born 1874), appear to also have been deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942, and then to Auschwitz in May 1944, where they were also killed.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection. The acquisition of this collection was made possible by the Crown Family.
Funding Note: The acquisition of this collection was made possible by the Crown Family.
Purchase, 2016.
Scope and Content
Correspondence sent and received by Friedrich Günser, originally of Vienna, Austria, who was interned by the British as an enemy alien in the early years of World War II, first in Camp Mooragh on the Isle of Man, and then at Camp Tatura in Australia. Includes one postcard from Günser's wife, Lilly (Cölestine), sent from Vienna (August 1940); a letter from Günser to relatives in New York (June 1940); an empty envelope that had contained a letter from Günser's father, Jakob, sent from Vienna (October 1941), and three letters from Günser to his wife Lilly (October 1941, January-February 1943), which went unanswered and were returned to Günser in Australia. Most of the letters and envelopes show signs of having been opened by German and British censors, as well as having been re-routed or returned to Günser, including those not forwarded after Lilly Günser had been deported from her home in Vienna.
People
- Günser, Jakob.
- Günser, Cölestine.
- Günser, Heinz.
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons.
- Jewish refugees--Australia.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Austria--Vienna.
- Hay Internment and Prisoner of War Camps.
- Tatura Internment Camp (Vic.)
- Jews--Austria--Vienna.
Genre
- Document
- Postcards.
- Letters.