Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)

Elsa Oestreicher, née Herz, born in Berlin in 1878 and married to the physician D. Jacques Oestreicher, was a successful cooking instructor and author of cookbooks. In 1942 she was deported to Theresienstadt where she also worked as a cook, cooking instructor and as head of the soup-kitchen until her liberation in 1945. The collection contains Elsa Oestreicher’s notes on Theresienstadt, concentration-camp insignia, correspondence, poems and memoirs by her as well as official documents such as certificates related to her profession.

The collection consists of private correspondence, personal documents and writings of Eva Heilberg Schäffer, her parents, her husband Hans Schäffer, her daughters and other relatives and friends.

This collection contains the family papers of the Loewald and Landshut families, notably personal and vital papers from before, during and after World War II which illustrate both the family's history and personal and professional lives. In particular, this collection amply documents the family's emigration in 1939, as well as a relative's internment in Theresienstadt, through legal documents and personal and official correspondence. There are also a large number of photographs illustrating Rosa Loewald's work as a nurse during World War I.