Sketchbook created by young Jewish girl in Nazi-Occupied France

Elizabeth Koenig (1924-2003) was born Elizabeth Kaufmann in Vienna to journalist Fritz Kaufmann and nurse Helen (Berggruen) Kaufmann. Fritz was put on trial in Germany for his anti-Nazi work and fled to Paris via Prague before the Anschluss in 1938. After several failed attempts to join him, Elizabeth finally arrived in Paris in November with her mother and brother, Peter, and attended art school. Fritz and Peter were interned as enemy aliens following the outbreak of World War II. Helen and Elizabeth fled south with other refugees as the Germans advanced on Paris, but were separated en route. Elizabeth found her brother in Toulouse, was reunited with her mother in Pau, and then joined Fritz near Limoges. Elizabeth found work in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon caring for the children of Pastor André Trocmé and then helping Dr. Juliette Usach care for German Jewish refugee children at the Secours Suisse aux Enfants home, La Guespy. Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee offered Fritz a non-quota American visa as an endangered, anti-Nazi European refugee intellectual caught in Vichy France, and helped secure visas for his family. The family was reunited in Lyon, traveled to Portugal in December 1941 via Marseilles and Spain. They sailed from Lisbon to the United States, arriving in February 1942.

The sketchbook was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2001 by Elizabeth Koenig.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Elizabeth Koenig