Correspondence with Loesten (Loewenstein), Karl

Dr Karl Loesten (born Loewenstein; 1887-1976) was a Jewish born German banker and Holocaust survivor. The upper class World War I veteran had converted to Protestantism in 1919. He was deported to the Minsk Ghetto in 1941, and soon transferred to Theresienstadt (Terezin) where he became chief of the inmate’s ghetto police. After the liberation he was charged by Soviet and Czech authorities, but was exonerated eventually. He moved to England and Australia subsequently, and finally settled in West Berlin.

See Lampert, T., One Life, London, Harcourt, 2004.

The correspondence centres on eyewitness accounts Loesten-Loewenstein had authored for The Wiener Library’s eyewitness testimony project; the consignment of at least four other reports for this collection (by Anna Barker; Dietrich Scheid; Arthur Schwarz; Erich Springer); and a debate of Paul Eppstein and his role as head of the Jewish Council (Judenrat) in Theresienstadt.

Contained are brief correspondences with E. G. Loewenthal and the editorial office of the German language magazine Jüdische Sozialarbeit (on the role of Paul Eppstein in Theresienstadt), the West Berlin senator for adult education (on the publication of Loesten’s reports), and with H. G. Adler (on annotations to a typescript Adler’s), with whom Loesten was befriended.

See also the Karl Loewenstein Collection.