Breth family papers

The Breth family papers include biographical materials, correspondence, and a photograph album. The biographical materials document Czech Holocaust survivor Fred Breth and his wife and son, Adele and Steven, who fled Czechoslovakia for Sweden and America. Correspondence consists of letters between Fred and Adele and Fred’s parents, Ernst and Hermine Breth, and his sister and brother, Gertrude and Hans, who were still in Czechoslovakia. The photograph album contains photographs by Adele documenting her and Fred’s prewar travels. Biographical materials include birth certificates, education and employment records, citizenship and identification papers, and immigration records documenting Fred and Adele Breth. This series also includes Steven Breth’s Swedish baptismal certificate. Correspondence consists of letters exchanged between Fred Breth in America and his family, primarily his parents but also his siblings, in Czechoslovakia. The collection includes the original letters from Europe and carbon copies of Fred’s replies from America. The letters usually focus on news of relatives and friends, daily life, health, work, the young children, and efforts to emigrate, but some also describe threats of war, the German annexation of the Sudetenland, Jewish refugees, Aryanization, and antisemitism. The correspondence ends with the news of Hans’ deportation. This series also includes English translations of the letters along with an introduction, biographical history, chronology, and name index. The donor’s family assigned numbers to each letter in approximate chronological order, and the letters retain that numerical arrangement. The assigned numbers can help match original letters to their translations. An index of correspondents can be found at the end of file 20. The prewar travel photograph album contains black and white photographs Adele primarily of mountain and lake scenes.

The Breth family papers are arranged as a three series: Series 1: Biographical material, 1915-1986 Series 2: Correspondence, 1938-1941, 2017 Series 2: Photograph album, 1934-1936