Kurt (Chaim) Flaschner papers

http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn85606 an entity of type: Record

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Chaim Flaschner was born Kurt Flaschner, on 30 September 1917, and was raised in Vienna, Austria. As a young man he studied music, in the hope of becoming a pianist or singer, but interrupted his studies following the annexation of Austria in 1938. The following year, he left the country, first living with relatives in Czechoslovakia, then travelling to Italy, where was able to board a ship bound for Palestine, which landed in Haifa, where he initially lived. After settling there, he resumed his music studies, performing as a singer in what became the Israel National Opera, with which he was associated until 1952. Following the start of the war, he joined the Jewish Brigade of the British 8th Army, serving as a combat engineer, and seeing action in Egypt and Libya, including at the battle of El Alamein. Following the war, he met Isabella Weiner, who had survived Auschwitz, and the two were married in Israel in February 1950. The Flaschners, with their two sons, immigrated to the United States in 1960.

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irn85606

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Kurt (Chaim) Flaschner papers

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Correspondence sent to Kurt (Chaim) Flaschner, following his emigration to Palestine (1939-1942), from his parents in Vienna, Josef and Regina Flaschner, who were subsequently deported to Maly Trostinec and perished there. Also includes other related correspondence sent to Kurt Flaschner, dating from approximately 1940-1950, from relatives in Czechoslovakia and Austria, and friends in Palestine. Contains news from family members in Austria, descriptions of conditions in Vienna in the months following Kristallnacht, discussions of acquaintances who had emigrated from Austria, and efforts to obtain an affidavit and other paperwork to enable Kurt Flaschner to immigrate to the United States, and later, regarding his parents' efforts to emigrate. Also includes correspondence from singer Melitta Heim, who provided a letter of reference for Kurt Flaschner, as well as a separate letter dated from 1866. The correspondence files from Flaschner’s parents begin on 30 December 1939, shortly after his arrival in Palestine. Throughout the first year or two that Flaschner was there, a recurrent theme in the correspondence is that of his parents’ efforts to secure for him an affidavit and visa that would enable him to immigrate to the United States, while reporting on the efforts--some successful--of various acquaintances and cousins seeking to leave Austria and Czechoslovakia. In the first letter they report of their move to smaller quarters and the need to sell their furniture, and throughout the correspondence there are signs of the increasingly difficult situation they found themselves in, economic and otherwise. The last letters that Flaschner received from his parents were in late 1941 and early 1942, sent via the Red Cross, and later via a family friend living in Switzerland. The letters that Flaschner received from relatives in Austria and Czechoslovakia (Prague, Brno, Močerok) describe efforts of various relatives--including some of those writing to Flaschner--to leave on transports bound for Palestine, and they inquire about conditions there. Correspondence from Palestine, primarily from Ignaz Rappaport, describe the difficulties in finding employment, bouts of being homesick for Europe, and other related issues of adapting to their new home. Correspondence from Heim includes a letter of reference she wrote for him from Vienna, explaining that Flaschner had studied singing with her while she was a singer with the State Opera in Vienna, and that he possessed a rich tenor singing voice. Heim also sent Flaschner a subsequent postcard and letter after her own immigration to England. A letter from March 1866, sent from someone in Hütten to an Elise Weissl in Salzburg is included, although the context of this letter in the history of the Flaschner family is unknown. In the file marked “Various” are other letters from unknown correspondents in 1939-1940, a prescription from a doctor in Tel Aviv, and a letter from the Palestine Conservatoire of Music in Jerusalem, regarding Flaschner’s request to enroll in further singing lessons. Lastly, the file of wedding congratulations contains telegrams and cards from friends in Israel on the occasion of the Flaschner’s wedding in 1950.

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