Arnost Polak: family correspondence and papers

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Gerta and Rudolf Pollak were assimilated Jews from Prague, a middle class family, relatively well off and not particularly religious. Their two sons, Felix and Arnost, managed to flee to Great Britain on one of the Kindertransporte. Gerta and Rudolf were murdered in Sobibor death camp some time after the last communication in August 1942.

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This collection comprises original postcards and letters from Gerta and Rudolf Pollak, Jewish inmates of Terezin concentration camp in former Czechoslovakia and Siedliszcze, a forced labour camp in the Lublin area, Poland. Also included are some recent photographs of Terezin and memorial stones. The letters are particularly significant for historians of the period because they provide a detailed insight into ghetto life and shed light on the fate of one transport from Terezin to Lublin District in Poland. The first postcard is from Gerta Pollak and the remaining 22 postcards and letters are from her husband, Rudolf, to a family friend in Prague, Hans Turnovsky.