folder 1
Wilhelm and Violet Dattner papers
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Correspondence and documents relating to Wilhelm (Willy) and Violet Dattner (donor's parents). Willy Dattner (b. 1909 in Krakow) and Violet Fogel (b. c.1916 in Oradea, Romania) lived in Antwerp, Belgium, where Willy was a diamond merchant. In May 1940, after the German invasion of Belgium, Willy started to evacuate his large family to France. After overcoming many difficulties, arrests, and returning to Antwerp to pick up additional family members, Willy and Violet reached Spain and later sailed to Havana, Cuba. In March 1941, they arrived in New York where they joined Sigi Dattner (Willy's brother). Simon Dattner (Willy's father), who was in hiding together with his wife Marie in Nice, France, was captured and transferred to Drancy transit camp. On March 4, 1943 he was deported on convoy #50 to the Majdanek death camp and murdered upon arrival.