Copyright Holder: Ms. Carole Kornreich
Stephen Kornreich papers
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
box oversize folder 1 1
The collection documents the Holocaust-era experiences of Stephen Kornreich, originally of Munkács, Hungary (Mukacheve, Ukraine), including his upbringing in Munkács, his life and career as an architect in Palestine from 1933-1938, and his service in the United States Army Air Corps. Included are identification papers, education and employment papers, immigration documentation, a personal narrative from his brother Beno Korda, an oral history transcript, and photographs. Biographical material includes education documents from Technische Lehranstalt Bodenbach, Stephen’s military service in Munkács, Czech passports, Palestinian identification papers, Stephen’s membership in the Symbolische Grossloge von Deutschland im Exil, and a marriage certificate from Stephen’s father Ignatz’s second marriage to Blanka Hellermann in 1921. Immigration papers consist of materials related to Stephen’s immigration to the United States in 1939 including RMS Queen Mary passenger lists and postcards, a health certificate, immigrant identification card, and United States Army induction paperwork. Also included is a 1946 letter from Stephen to the United States Consulate in Prague regarding affidavits for his brother Joseph Korda (under the name Markus Kornreich) and his wife Alzbeta. Correspondence consists of a pre-war postcard sent to Stephen in Palestine; copies of two wartime letters sent to Stephen from his sister Blanka’s husband Tibor Ney in 1944, along with a translation and accompanying letter from 1997, and a 1960 letter to Stephen from Hilary Goldberg of the British ORT. Writings consist of a transcript of an oral history interview with Stephen and a copy of his brother Beno Korda’s memoir. The memoir began as a series of letters to his niece Carole Kornreich in 1993 about his family in pre-war Munkács and his experiences as a forced-laborer in Hungary during World War II. Photographs include pre-war depictions of Stephen and his family including his father’s second wife Blanka and his sister Sula. Also includes depictions of Stephen while serving in the United States Army Air Corps.
Stephen Kornreich (1912-1989) was born in Munkács, Hungary (Mukacheve, Ukraine) to Ignatz Kornreich (1880-1944) and Sheindl Schoenfeld (1884-1916). He had five siblings: Sarah (Sula, 1905-1944), Marcus Joseph (nicknamed Joska, later Joseph Korda, 1907-1993?), Blanka (later Blanka Kornreich Ney, 1908-1944), Bela (later Bert Korda, 1910-1992), and Benedict (later Beno Korda, 1914-2010). His mother died giving birth to his sixth sibling, who also died during childbirth. Stephen’s father remarried to Blanka Kellermann (1895-1944) in 1921, and they had two more children: Andor (1927-1944) and Miklos (1933-1944). The family primarily spoke Hungarian at home with Sheindl, and Yiddish after Ignatz married Blanka. Ignatz was a businessman. Stephen attended architectural school in Bodenbach, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic). He went to Palestine in 1933, on a six-week visa, but decided to stay and work as an architect, first in Tel Aviv, and later in Jerusalem. In February 1939 Stephen immigrated to the United States aboard the RMS Queen Mary. He worked as an architect in New York, and in 1942 he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. He served in the Pacific Theatre in New Guinea, Australia, and Philippines. In 1943, Stephen married Lisbeth Modley, a Jewish refugee from Austria, and after the war they had two daughters. After he was discharged in December 1945 he resumed his architecture career in New York. In 1951 the Kornreich family moved to Maryland. Stephen tried to get his family to leave Europe, but his family remained in Munkács. His father; stepmother; two half-brothers, Andor and Miklos; brother Joska and his wife Piri (née Moskovics) and son George (1939-1944); brother Bela; sister Sula, her husband Ernest Rosenfeld, and their son Norbert (1935-1944); and sister Blanka, her husband Tibor Ney (1906-1991), and their son Tomas (1937-1944) were all deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Only Joska, Bela, and Tibor Ney survived. Stephen and Lisbeth sponsored Joska and Bela’s immigration to the United States. After they arrived in the U.S., they changed their names to Joseph Korda and Bert Korda respectively. Stephen’s other brother, Benedict, was in Prague during the start of World War II. He fled to Budapest, Hungary in December 1942. In 1943 he was conscripted as a forced-laborer in Košice and other locales. He later fled the labor battalion and joined the Russian Army. He returned to Hungary with them. After the war, he married a non-Jewish Czech woman and they lived in Prague until June 1968 when they fled to Edmonton, Canada. He changed his name to Beno Korda.
The collection is arranged as five series. Series 1. Biographical material, 1921-1970 Series 2. Immigration, 1938-1946 Series 3. Correspondence, 1933-1997 Series 4. Writings, 1981-2018 Series 5. Photographs, circa 1900-circa 2008