Sobibór (Concentration camp)

This collection consists of the personal papers of the Hochherr family of southwestern Germany. Materials include vital records, photographs, a genealogical chart, a family history, official records of family members’ deportations and deaths in extermination camps, an account of life in Nazi-occupied Holland, and an account of an escape to Switzerland. With the exception of the photographs, the collection consists entirely of photocopies.

The collection contains correspondence mostly authored by Stephanie and Franz Pisker, dispatched from Vienna, Austria and the Jewish ghetto in Opole, Poland to their daughter Susan (née Herta) in America, before Franz and Stefanie were killed in the extermination camp of Sobibor. Also included are official documents and letters pertaining to their unsuccessful attempt to immigrate to the United States and the questionnaires by the Austrian Heritage Collection of Susan and her husband John H. Graham.