Hans Schmoller: Family papers
Extent and Medium
3 boxes
Biographical History
Hans Peter Schmoller was born in Berlin in 1916 to Jewish parents. He went to London in the early 1930s to do a course in compositing at the Monotype Institute. There he heard about a vacancy at Morija Printing Works, Basutoland (Lesotho) to run an Evangelical Swiss printing press. Hans emigrated to Basutoland in 1938 where he was interned as an enemy alien at Ganspan camp in the following year. He was released from internment in 1942. Tragically, although he got permission for his parents to join him, war was declared just a few days before their departure date and they could no longer leave the country. His parents were deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942, his mother was transferred to Auschwitz in 1944. Both perished.
Hans later moved to England where he worked as a successful typographer. He married his wife Tanya.
Acquisition
Donated November 2004
Donor: Tanya Schmoller
Scope and Content
This collection contains the personal correspondence and papers of Hans Schmoller.
Papers containing correspondence from Hans Peter Schmoller to his parents, Hans Israel and Marie Schmoller (1690/1) and other family members and friends, ranging from the time of his studies in London in the early 1930s to his emigration to Morija, Basutoland (now Lesotho) in 1938 and subsequent internment in Ganspan camp in 1939; detailed accounts by his parents of the persecutions and worsening conditions for Jews in Nazi Germany particularly after the November pogroms; and his parents' incarceration at Theresienstadt concentration camp (1690/2/282). It includes enquiries at the Theresienstadt Martyrs Remembrance Association regarding the fate of Hans's parents (1690/2/284), incomplete list of belongings for emigration (1690/2/285) and photographs; letters to Hans from his parents (1690/2) and to Hans from others (1690/3)
Also included are papers, certificate of Confirmation, visiting cards, educational and professional certificates, and music performance reviews relating to Hans's aunt Johanna Dorothea Behrend who emigrated to England in 1939.
German English
System of Arrangement
The folders are arranged thus: correspondence Hans Schmoller to parents (1690/1); parents to Hans Schmoller (1690/2); other correspondents to Hans Schmoller (1690/3); material re Johanna Berend (1690/4 and 1690/5)
Conditions Governing Access
Open
People
- Schmoller, Hans
Subjects
- Terezin (ghetto)
- National Socialism
- Migration
- Holocaust
- Refugees
- Persecution
- Jews
- Internment camps
Places
- Ganspan
- Lesotho
- Morija
- Berlin