Robert Kaldeck papers

Robert Kaldeck (1910-1998) was born Robert Kohn on 2 February 1910 in Vienna, Austria to Moriz (b. 1876) and Ella (b. 1879) Kohn. His father was a World War I veteran and earned a bronze medal for bravery. He had two sisters, Alice (nicknamed Lizzy or Lizzi, b. 1911) and Edith (nicknamed Ditty, 1905-1957). Robert changed his last name to Kaldeck in 1929. He graduated from the University of Vienna Medical School in 1935 and practiced medicine in Vienna. After the German annexation of Austria in March 1938, Robert made plans to emigrate. In September 1938 he and six other Austrians (Benjamin Wolf Frostig, Walter Kleim, Kurt Kleim, Ernesto Myer, and Egon and Hermina Bachrach) left Austria with the intention of immigrating to Mexico. They sailed from Hamburg to Lisbon, Portugal where they remained until early January 1939. Robert received a transit visa from the American Consulate in Lisbon on 15 December 1938 to go to Mexico via New York and Laredo, Texas. They sailed to New York via England but were detained on Ellis Island from 23 January until 3 February 1939. Robert’s transit visa was denied, and he was told he would have to reach Mexico by boat rather than bus, at a significant cost. Robert and the other Austrians boarded the SS Orizaba to Mexico and Cuba, but despite having valid paperwork, they were denied entry into Mexico. Future Cuban president Fulgencio Batista was also on board the ship, and Robert and Benjamin Frostig spoke with him in Spanish about their situation as refugees. Batista agreed to allow the Austrians to go to Havana, Cuba. Robert remained in Cuba from 16 February 1939 until 12 September 1939 when he immigrated to the United States. Robert wrote about his and Frostig’s meeting with Batista in several letters in which he referred to their entry into Cuba as “an exceptional landing” and a great success. He also wrote a thank-you letter to Batista, and gave him one of his paintings as an expression of gratitude for allowing him to come to Cuba. An accomplished amateur artist, he left Austria with a series of his charcoal sketches of locations in Austria. He made watercolor and oil paintings while in Portugal and Cuba and took his art with him to the USA. While in Cuba, Robert wrote multiple letters to HIAS who helped him obtain an affidavit of support, without which he could not have entered the USA. Alfred G. Baker Lewis, a wealthy man from Boston, signed an affidavit for him. Robert corresponded with his family about their efforts to get sponsors as well. Edith, who was already in England, exerted great effort to obtain affidavits for Ella, Moriz and Lizzy. He continued this effort after arriving in the USA, working with HIAS in Boston. He settled in Massachusetts, first in Roxbury, then in Brighton, both Boston neighborhoods. As a resident physician, he briefly lived in Clarksburg, West Virginia from March to December 1941 then moved back to Massachusetts, eventually settling in Lowell. Robert married Dorothy Levine in June 1941, in Boston. Robert learned after the war that his parents, Ella and Moriz, and younger sister Alice perished during the Holocaust. They were deported to the Riga ghetto in 1942. Alice was later deported to the Stutthof concentration camp in 1944.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of E.Smith

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of E. Smith

The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Robert Kaldeck’s daughter, E. Smith, in 2018. An accretion was also donated in 2018. The previous accessions numbered 2018.125.1 and 2018.129.1 have been incorporated into this collection.