Heinz Praeger papers
Extent and Medium
folders
oversize box
oversize folder
9
1
1
Creator(s)
- Heinz Praeger
Biographical History
Karl Heinz Praeger (1911-1997) was born on July 7, 1911 in Berlin, Germany to Siegfried (1880-1943) and Rosa Praeger (1877-1939). He had an older brother, Armin (b. 1908). He was educated as an accountant and worked at a large bank in Berlin. After the Nazis took power in Germany, Armin Praeger, who was a Communist, left for Switzerland in 1933, and from there, moved to Argentina. In 1936, after Karl Heinz was fired from the bank, he moved to Kitzingen, Germany, to help manage the accounting books of a friend who was being forced to sell off his wine business. He lived with the Oppenheimer family in Kitzingen between the summer of 1936 and November 1938. The Jewish men of Kitzingen, including Karl Heinz and the Oppenheimers, were arrested on Kristallnacht and sent to Dachau, where Mr. Oppenheimer died. Karl Heinz was released at the end of January 1939 after his parents paid for his release and purchased a ticket for him to Shanghai. On June 13, 1939, Karl Heinz left for Shanghai on the Gneisenau, stopping in Bombay, Singapore, and Hong Kong. After arriving in Shanghai, he learned that his mother passed away the day he left Germany--he believed that she committed suicide. Siegfried Praeger was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943. In Shanghai, Karl Heinz worked as a photographer, was permitted to leave the Jewish quarter, and captured many scenes of Chinese life during the war. He met Felicitas Hoffmann (1918-1986), an Austrian refugee who came to Shanghai from Great Britain in 1939. They married on October 11, 1942. They had one son, Jack (1945-1978), who was born in Shanghai on February 15, 1945. In the spring of 1947, the family immigrated to the United States on the SS Marine Lynx, arriving in San Francisco on April 7, 1947. Karl Heinz became "Heinz" and Felicitas took the name "Phyllis." They moved to Boston to join Phyllis's relatives. Jack passed away on May 23, 1978, and Phyllis on March 9, 1986. Heinz Praeger passed away on April 20, 1997.
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.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Michael Carlon
Michael (Mick) Carlon donated the Heinz Praeger papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1997, 2015, and 2018. Mick Carlon was a friend of Heinz Praeger.
Scope and Content
The Heinz Praeger papers include biographical materials, photographs, and printed materials documenting Heinz Praeger, his prewar life in Germany, and his wartime years as a refugee with his wife and son in Shanghai. Biographical materials include three copies of a brief biography of Heinz Praeger by Michael Carlon describing Praeger’s childhood in Berlin, antisemitic persecution in the 1930s, his imprisonment in Dachau after Kristallnacht, his relocation to Shanghai, meeting and marrying his wife, the birth of their son, the family’s immigration to the United States, and their lives in New England. This series also includes a handful of identification papers documenting Praeger and his wife before they left Europe. Photographs include an album containing images of prewar German towns including Kitzingen, Iphofen, Mainbernheim, Sulzfeld am Main, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Loose photographs document Praeger’s life in Shanghai and include images of his wife and son. This series also includes three images of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Printed materials include two Japanese publications (one with an advertisement for Praeger on page 429), a page from the Shanghai Jewish Chronicle announcing the birth of Praeger’s son; and a 1993 clipping about the Kitzingen synagogue.
System of Arrangement
The Heinz Praeger papers are arranged in three series: Series 1: Biographical materials, 1934-1939, circa 1997-2018 Series 2: Photographs, circa 1918-1960 Series 3: Printed materials, circa 1939-1945, 1993
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Mr. Michael Carlon
Subjects
- Jewish refugees--China--Shanghai.
- Shanghai (China)
- Hongkou Qu (Shanghai, China)
- Jews--Germany--Berlin.
Genre
- Document
- Photographs.
- Biographies.