Correspondence with Adler, H. G.

Dr Hans Günther Adler (1910-1988) was a Czech intellectual and Holocaust survivor. Born into an assimilated Jewish family in Prague, he was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942, and later to Auschwitz and Buchenwald. After the war Adler moved to London, campaigned for survivor organisations like the International Auschwitz Committee and started publishing novels. His academic study Theresienstadt 1941-1945, published in 1955, is regarded as one of the foundation works of Holocaust Studies.

See Creet, J. et. al. (eds.), H.G. Adler: life, literature, legacy, Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 2016.

The correspondence documents Adler’s long-term freelance work for The Wiener Library. This includes among others the authoring of numerous reviews, expert reports, and articles for the Library's Bulletin as well as contributing to research projects like the Library’s eyewitness testimony project.

Furthermore, light is thrown on Adler’s own academic work, primary his ground breaking study on the Theresienstadt camp from 1955. The Library’s importance for its completion, attempts to place reviews in relevant journals or newspapers, the wide acclaim the study received, and Adler’s efforts to edit a second book on this topic are addressed in the letters. Briefly mentioned is also Adler’s withdraw from the International Auschwitz Committee.