After German and Slovak pressures, Czechoslovakia became Czech-Slovakia in 1938 after the Munich Pact, meaning the country had to surrender its border and defenses to Nazi Germany. On March 15, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Czech provinces under the…
Ilonka and Ludovit Sturc pictured together in 1938. Ludovit owned a print shop, which made the family exempt from deportation. However, in 1941, his business was "Aryanized."
The Reich Family (maternal side) circa 1920. Susan's mother, Ilonka, is…
Postcards circa 1910 and 1932 showing Klagenfurt's Neuer Platz (city hall). Before the annexation of Austria, the Klagenfurt Neuer Platz was known as an example of the German Renaissance era. Two famous monuments, the Dragon (Lindwurm) (created to…
Doris’s husband, Alfred (Fred) Schneider, was also a child in Austria in the 1930s. In 1934 he made his own Waffen Pass (Weapons Permit). The handmade pass represents how Fred processed the growing tensions in Austria, from the 1934 February…
In December 1938, Doris received a passport, issued by the Third Reich, so she and her mother could join her father in England. The Nazis stamped the letter “J” for Jude (Jew) (not pictured) on the first page of the passport.
Doris was holding her doll (pictured) when the Nazis entered her family's apartment flat during Kristallnacht. One Nazi swung an axe at Doris, but the doll head received the brunt of the impact, shattering it. Gertrude replaced the doll's head in…
During Kristallnacht in November 1938, the Nazis burned the Klagenfurt synagogue. The Torah scrolls were taken out to the street and burned, as well as the furniture. In 1944, a bomb destroyed part of the synagogue. In the aftermath of World War II,…