Hannah Kastan Weiss papers
Extent and Medium
folders
oversize folder
10
1
Creator(s)
- Hannah K. Weiss
Biographical History
Hannah Kastan Weiss was born on November 23, 1938 in Berlin, Germany, to Günter (1914-1945) and Charlotte Sonja Kastan (née Kogen, 1913-1943?). Günter was born in Breslau to Harry (1891-1949) and Magdalena Kastan (1894-1977). During the Nazi years, Magdalena and Harry Kastan benefited from a protected status because she was born in a Christian family, and Harry Kastan remained free by performing heavy labor in Berlin. After World War II began, Hannah’s parents were pressed into forced labor at the Siemens plant in Berlin. Hannah lived with her parents during the weekends and with her grandparents during the week. In March 1943, Hannah and her parents were rounded-up and taken to the Berlin Jewish Home for the Aged, a key assembly point for deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hannah's grandmother spotted her there and managed to smuggle her out, but Günter and Charlotte were deported. For the rest of the war, Hannah lived with her grandparents, who registered her as their own child. Hannah had to remain indoors and hide whenever there was a knock on the door, but she otherwise led a normal life. Hannah's mother was never heard from again after her deportation, and is presumed to have perished in Auschwitz. Her father was able to smuggle mail to his parents and daughter from the Monowitz concentration camp (Auschwitz III) until January 1945. He was reportedly beaten and then shot to death by an SS guard on February 28, 1945, during the death march from Auschwitz to Germany. In 1947, Hannah and her grandparents immigrated to the United States aboard the Marine Flasher and settled in Chicago with the assistance of the United Service for New Americans. Her grandfather died in 1949, and her grandmother died in 1977.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Hannah Kastan Weiss
Hannah Kastan Weiss donated the Hannah Kastan Weiss papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1996.
Scope and Content
The Hannah Kastan Weiss papers consist of biographical materials, correspondence, and printed materials documenting the Kastan family of Berlin, Germany, including Hannah Kastan; her father Günter, who performed forced labor at the Monowitz concentration camp; and his parents, Harry and Magdalena Kastan, who raised Hannah as their own child and protected her from deportation. Records include wartime and postwar identification papers, ration tickets, letters written from the Monowitz concentration camp, and immigration documents. Biographical materials document the lives of Hannah, Harry, and Magdalena Kastan in Berlin during World War II and following liberation and their immigration to the United States in 1947. Records include identification papers, registrations, permissions, exemptions, travel papers, immigration documents, vaccination records, ration tickets, and a photograph of Hannah just after liberation. Correspondence consists of letters and postcards sent by Günter Kastan from the Monowitz concentration camp (Auschwitz III) to his parents and daughter in Berlin from approximately 1943-1945. The authorized postcards contain brief greetings and reassurances that Günter is well. The clandestine letters relate Günter’s worries for his family and news of friends; request supplies such as food, cigarettes, clothing, soap, and writing paper; describe general conditions, work, and holidays in the camp; and ask about his daughter. Printed materials include a page from a 1947 issue of the newspaper N.Y. Staats-Zeitung und Herold containing an article about Hannah Kastan as well as sheet music and lyrics for the protest song Wir sind die Moorsoldaten.
System of Arrangement
The Hannah Kastan Weiss papers are arranged as three series: Series 1: Biographical materials, approximately 1939-1950 Series 2: Correspondence, approximately 1943-1945 Series 3: Printed material, approximately 1947
People
- Hannah K. Weiss
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Jews--Germany--Berlin.
- Concentration camp inmates--Correspondence.
- Berlin (Germany)
- United States--Emigration and immigration--History.
- Jewish families--Germany--Berlin.
Genre
- Correspondence.
- Photographs.
- Ration books.
- Document