Hans Pfeiffer papers Nachlass Hans Pfeiffer (1910-1998)

Hans Pfeiffer (July 20, 1910 – Dec.11, 1998), was born in Zürich, Switzerland. He was an insurance agent, inspector for the Eidgenössische Zentralstelle der Heime und Lager (Swiss Central Administration of Asylums and Camps). The co-founder of several youth organizations against the frontist movement and national-socialist infiltration in Switzerland; 1938 to 1939 involved with the Tatgemeinschaft der Schweizer Jugend (Action Community of Swiss Youth); 1942 the deputy head of the work camp for emigrants in Thalheim; June to Oct. 1942 the head of the camp for political refugees in Gordola; September to Nov. 1942 stationed in Les Ponts-de-Martel; Nov. 1942 to Jan. 1943 compulsory military service (“Aktivdienst”); Feb. 1943 to July 1944 head of the Russian-Yugoslav internment camp Andelfingen; beginning in Aug. 1944 regional inspector for the Tessin and other Swiss regions with approx. 250 staffers and responsibility for ca. 25 camps with 2,500 inhabitants; after May 1945 responsible for the care of Swiss returnees who were housed temporarily in former refugee asylums; 1947 to 1949 administrator for the return by the Swiss Government of rental properties to their private owners; 1949 to 1971 Secretary of the VPOD. Dies in 1998 in Zürich, Switzerland.

Forms part of the Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This archive consists of documentation whose reproduction and/or acquisition was made possible with funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Source of acquisition is the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Archiv für Zeitgeschichte (AfZ), Switzerland; the signature: NL Hans Pfeiffer. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s International Archives Project in Nov. 2011.