Michael Kay collection

Michael Kay (1923-2003) was born on August 14, 1923 in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania). The family eventually moved to Paris, France. In 1940, after the German occupation of France, the Kay family moved to a farm in Bourbon-L'Archambault. In August 1942, Michael was arrested but escaped deportation to a forced labor camp by jumping out the window of the house. Michael eventually crossed the border into Spain and was arrested by Spanish authorities. In July 1943, the International Red Cross secured his release in Gibraltor. He joined the British Army and was sent to England for training. From 1944-1945 he served as an infantryman with the 43rd British division. At the end of the war, he was transferred to the Intelligence Corps and assisted in the denazification of German governmental agencies. In 1945 he was transferred to Poland where he gathered intelligence relating to the Russian occupation of Poland. In 1946, he led his own intelligence team under the Army to Control Commission of Germany. He was released from the British army in August 1947 and was employed by a fur import/export firm in London, where he worked in public relations. With a sponsorship from his cousin, the President of the General Shoe Lace Company in Louisville, H.L. Raus, Michael Kay immigrated to the United States in June 1949. He enrolled in the University of Louisville and earned a bachelor’s degree. In October 1951, he was awarded a teaching fellowship at Northwestern University where he taught French and earned a Master’s degree. Around 1953, Michael Kay married Joan Wood, a native of Louisville, Kentucky. Michael Kay died on July 22, 2003. Joan Wood Kay died on June 19, 2016. Both of Michael’s parents survived the war in France. Joan Kay (née Wood, 1929-2016) was born in Louisville, Kentucky on May 24, 1929 to Guy B. and Helen Wood. She graduated from the University of Louisville in 1951, after which she attended the University of Florence Italy on a Fulbright scholarship. In 1953, she began her career as a writer for the Courier Journal until her retirement in 1987. She married Michael Kay. Joan Kay died on June 19, 2016.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Catherine Zimmerman

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Catherine Peterson Zimmerman

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Catherine Zimmerman donated this collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013. An accretion of additional materials was added to the collection in 2017 by Catherine Zimmerman.