Drechsler family papers

Clara Drechsler (later Clara Kramer, 1908-1996) was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1908 to Isidor and Anna Drechsler. Her father Isidor (1880-1942) was born in Trnava (present day Slovakia) to Bernhard and Adela (née Sidon) Drechsler. Her mother Anna (née Weiss, 1883-1942) was born in Szeged, Hungary to Bernard and Klara (née Pulitzer) Weiss. Isidor and Anna were immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire who immigrated to the United States with their young son, Andor (b. 1905, also known as Bondi). Soon after Clara’s birth the family decided to return to Trnava. Clara’s younger siblings, twins Béla and Rose (later Rose Pogany, nicknamed Baby), were born in Trnava in 1917. Isidor was the proprietor of an iron foundry in the city. Clara graduated from the University of Prague Law School, but did not practice law. After the German-annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 the Drechsler family began to experience anti-Semitic persecution. Clara travelled to the United States to attend the World’s Fair in June 1939 aboard the SS Manhattan. After the outbreak of World War II, she was not able to return to Europe, and was already an American citizen by birth. At the time of Clara’s departure, her brother Andor lived in Hungary and her brother Bela served with the Czech Army in exile. Her parents and sister Rose remained in Trnava. Within months of arriving in United States Clara married Charles Kramer (1912-2004). The couple settled in New York and had two children: Agnes (b. 1940) and Stanford (b. 1944). Clara remained in regular correspondence with her family in Europe. The couple also sent material support to Clara’s family through the JDC. In 1940 Rose escaped Czechoslovakia to join her brother Andor in Hungary. The Drechsler children endeavored to aid their parents living under German-occupation in Trnava in the hopes that they too might be able to flee. In approximately April or June 1942 Isidor and Anna were deported to Auschwitz where they were killed. Andor and Rose survived the Holocaust in hiding as non-Jews. Bela went to Palestine and immigrated to the United States in 1948. Rose and her family fled Hungary during the 1956 revolution, later immigrating to the United States with her husband Gyuri Pogany.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Agnes Rothkopf and Holly Rothkopf

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Holly Rothkopf

The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Holly Rothkopf in 2018. An accretion was donated in 2019. Holly is the granddaughter of Clara Drechsler Kramer. The collections previously cataloged as 20108.635.1 and 2019.270.1 have been incorporated into this collection.