Siegfried Kessler: Correspondence
Extent and Medium
1 folder
Biographical History
Siegfried Kessler was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1879; he was married with two sons who all accompanied him to England in 1939; and when he left Czechoslovakia he was a retired senior civil servant.
He was a member of the Jewish Social Democratic Workers' Party Poale Zion for 30 years. He was also vice president of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, Brünn for which organisation he managed the provision of assistance to prospective Jewish emigrants in the late 1930s. It was in this capacity that he was arrested by the Gestapo on the day that the Nazis marched into Czechoslovakia. After release and continual harassment he eventually managed to secure visas for himself and his family and arrived in England in June 1939.
Whilst in England he maintained contact with the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, Brünn and applied himself to assisting with the expatriation of Czech Jews. He was involved with such as organisations as the Czech Refugee Trust Fund, the Jewish Agency Group, the Self Aid Association and the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
The papers have been arranged chronologically.
Acquisition
Correspondence Siegfried (Viteszlaus) Kessler
Donated March 1991
Scope and Content
This collection of mostly original correspondence between Siegfried Kessler, a Czech Jewish exile in London, and various organisations and individuals, sheds light on the conditions of Czech Jews in Czechoslovakia in the early years of the war and the processes involved in getting them out.
According to an incomplete curriculum vitae at -/20
Conditions Governing Access
Open
People
- Kessler, Siegfried
Subjects
- Documents
- Letters
- Refugees
- Jewish relief organisations
Places
- Czechoslovakia [1918-1992]
- Brno