Franz Sobotka papers
Extent and Medium
folders
oversize folder
8
1
Creator(s)
- Franz Sobotka
Biographical History
Franz (František) Sobotka was born January 10, 1896 in Dlouhá Lhota (Czech Republic) and lived in Klattau (Klatovy) with his wife Rosa (Růženka) and son Vladimir (Vláda). He was a high school teacher and gave anti-Nazi lectures to political and labor organizations. He was arrested by the Gestapo in September 1939 and transferred to Buchenwald, where he remained under prisoner number 5243 until liberation in April 1945.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
Melcher de Wit
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Melcher de Wit sold the Franz Sobotka papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum via eBay in 2001.
Scope and Content
The Franz Sobotka papers consist primarily of letters Franz wrote to his family while imprisoned at Buchenwald. The letters relate how Sobotka misses his family, include instructions for sending him packages, and inquire about news of relatives and friends. The collection also includes letters to him from his wife and son, many with draft replies from him on the versos, as well as a 1944 map of the Weimar SS garrison command (Standortbereich), stamped "SS-Kraftfahr Ausbildungs und Ersatz regiment!"
System of Arrangement
The Franz Sobotka papers are arranged as a single series: I. Franz Sobotka papers, 1939-1945
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Political prisoners--Germany--Weimar (Thuringia)--Correspondence.
- Klatovy (Czech Republic)
- Weimar (Thuringia, Germany)
- Concentration camp inmates--Germany--Weimar (Thuringia)--Correspondence.
Genre
- Document