Hans Posner papers

Hans Joachim Posner was born on January 22, 1927 in Dresden, Germany, to Georg Josef Posner (d. 1936) and Fanny Leschziner Posner (d. 1943). Georg Posner was a salesman and Fanny, who was his second wife, took care of the children: Wally (b. 1908), who was Georg’s daughter from his first marriage; Harry (b. 1910-1991); Freddy (Manfred, d. 1994) and Hans (b. 1927). The family lived in Beuthen, Germany, (now Bytom, Poland). Fanny’s father, Wilhelm Leschziner worked as a kosher butcher. When Hans was eight years old, the SS raided the family’s house, after which, he started to stutter. On October 25, 1936, Georg Posner died of a heart attack. During Kristallnacht in November 1938, Hans’ grandfather, Wilhelm Leschziner was arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp. In February 1939, Fanny Posner sent her sons, Hans and Freddy, on a Kindertransport to Sweden. Afterwards, she moved to Berlin with a family friend, Nils Davidsson (born Nathan Neumann), a Russian Jew and a Swedish citizen. Nils and Fanny corresponded with the Posner boys until Fanny’s deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp in March 1943. She perished in Auschwitz. After informing the boys of her deportation, Nils Davidsson arrived in Sweden in April 1943. Hans and Freddy Posner survived the war and eventually opened a successful restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden. Hans Posner married Ingrid in 1953. They have two children, Eva (b. 1954) and Kathryn (b. 1958), and several grandchildren. Hans’ brother, Harry also survived the war. Harry Posner worked as a window decorator in the Bilschowsky store in Beuthen. In 1935, he married Lotte, Teischgreber, a non-Jewish German woman. At some point, the Nazis punished her for the “Rassenschande” by feathering her. The couple fled Germany for Poland, and in 1939 they immigrated to Great Britain. In August 1940, Harry Posner was deported by the British to Australia. It is unclear if Lotte was sent with him. Harry served in the British Army during the war and died in 1991. Wally Posner Angress, Hans’ oldest sister, left Germany for La Paz, Bolivia in July 1939.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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

Hans Posner donated the Hans Posner papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2001.