Victor Cooper Collection

This collection documents the work of Viktor Kupfer (later Victor Cooper) as a business custodian, special investigator, and Jewish community leader in Straubing (Bavaria, Germany) during the years following the end of World War II. The collection relates primarily to the denazification process and early restitution cases in Straubing.

The correspondence in the first few folders of the collection concerns Kupfer’s emigration efforts as well as legal cases in which Kupfer was involved. The colleagues and friends with whom Kupfer corresponds include Erwin Respondek, a lawyer and personal friend, Kupfer’s lawyer Hans Labin, and Georg Reuter, another friend and a member of the Gewerkschaftsrat (Union Council) in Munich and Wirtschaftsrat (Business Council) in Frankfurt am Main.

A large portion of the collection relates to Viktor Kupfer's work as the custodian of the Dietzel clothing factory. Two folders include materials on the legal case brought against Viktor Kupfer between 1947 and 1948 concerning fabric missing from the Dietzel clothing factory. This material includes legal statements, affidavits, correspondence with lawyers, and court decisions.

Other materials related to Viktor Kupfer’s work as the custodian of the Dietzel factory include details on the production, inventory, and finances of the factory between 1945 and 1948. Also included are legal statements and correspondence concerning the misappropriation of former Jewish property by the brothers and Nazi sympathizers Adolf (formerly Adam) and Hugo Dietzel. Affidavits confirming threats the Dietzel brothers made against Viktor Kupfer can also be found in this part of the collection.

Another well-documented case included in the collection revolves around the clothing store Modehaus Sauter. The married couple Wolf and Hildegard Sauter, the appointed custodians of this store, were accused of falsifying the inventory and taking goods for themselves. Viktor Kupfer was appointed one of three special investigators to look into the inventory and other records of the Sauter store, and they gave a report in 1946, a copy of which can be found in this collection. Further charges related to the Sauters arose as the case developed, including a charge made by Viktor Kupfer accusing Wolf Sauter of libel. The case continued after Kupfer left Germany for the United States in 1949. Materials related to it include correspondence, legal statements, affidavits, and court records.

Other legal cases covered in the collection include one brought by a man named Immerglück against Kupfer regarding an unresolved debt, and several other restitution and denazification cases concerning residents of Straubing which are not as well documented here as the Dietzel factory and Sauter cases. Included among these materials are a few pieces of correspondence regarding legal actions taken against Kristallnacht perpetrators in Straubing.

In addition to his position as custodian of the Dietzel factory, Viktor Kupfer was also the Vice Chairman of the Jewish Committee of Straubing. In this position, Kupfer was involved in many issues that arose involving the local community and the American military government. Materials related to these activities include correspondence, official complaints, regulations, contracts, election materials, and reports of hate crimes that took place in Straubing. Also included with the Straubing Jewish community materials is some documentation of Kupfer’s work with other relief and service organizations, such as Relief for the Former Concentration Camp Prisoners, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Team 550, and the Central Committee of Liberated Jews. A small number of programs for religious and memorial services, correspondence and clippings regarding the performance of “Professor Mamlock” at the Straubing Theater (Straubinger Stadttheater), and a few copies of photographs of the Straubing synagogue are also included in the folder Straubing Jewish community materials.

Anonymous threats sent to Jewish residents of Straubing can also be found in this collection, as well as materials related to Kupfer’s work as a camp leader of the International Refugee Organization Straubing. Copies of Viktor Kupfer’s personal documents such as identification cards, completed forms regarding his imprisonment in concentration camps, and short biographical sketches are also included.

The collection consists entirely of photocopies.