Frantisek Vohryzek family papers
Extent and Medium
box
1
Creator(s)
- Frantisek Vohryzek
Biographical History
Frantisek Benno Vohyrzek was born on March 3, 1916, in Hrdlovka, Czechoslovakia, to Otto and Marie Abeles Vohryzek. He had a younger sister, Vlasta, who was born in 1923. Frantisek lived in Hrdlovka until 1934, when he moved to Prague to attend law school at Charles University. By the late 1930s, the entire family was living in Prague. In early 1939, Frantisek immigrated to Ecuador, likely to pave the way for his parents and sister to join him, but any attempts were unsuccessful. On October 7, 1943, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Frantisek married Mary McCabe Lynch, originally of Denver, Colorado. In the spring of 1944, the couple was able to enter the United States through Mexico. After the war, Frantisek learned that his parents were deported on September 8, 1942, to Theresienstadt, and from there, on October 26, 1942, to Auschwitz, where they perished. Frantisek and Mary settled in San Francisco, CA, and raised eight daughters.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Miki Vohryzek-Bolden
Miki Vohryzek-Bolden and members of the Vohryzek family donated this collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013.
Scope and Content
Consists of original documents, correspondence, and copyprints related to Frantisek Benno Vohryzek, originally of Hrdlovka, Czechoslovakia. Includes documents related to Vohryzek's emigration to Ecuador in 1939, his life in Ecuador, emigration to the United States in 1944, and related to learning that his parents and sister perished during the Holocaust. The Frantisek Vohryzek papers document the experience of a Czech refugee immigrating to Ecuador in early 1939. The collection includes his emigration and identity papers for the immigration, correspondence with his parents and sister remaining in Prague, and his marriage certificate from 1943. The bulk of the correspondence is post-war, as Frantisek, now married and in the United States, corresponded with extended family and friends to learn of the fate of his parents and sister, as well as the fate of the family’s belongings in Prague. The correspondence has all been translated into English; translations are included in folder 4 of the collection, as well as published in Frantisek Vohryzek: One Story of Love and Loss by Miki Vohryzek-Bolden (2011).
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged chronologically within each folder.
People
- Vohryzek, Frantisek.
- Vohryzek, Marie.
- Vohryzek, Vlasta.
- Vohryzek, Otto.
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945--Refugees--Ecuador.
- Hrdlovka (Czech Republic)
- World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Czech Republic.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document
- Correspondence.