Dezider Scheer Collection
Scope and Content Note
The Dezider Scheer Collection documents select periods throughout the life and career of Dezider Scheer. The collection consists of correspondence, legal and identification documents, original and photocopied photographs, clippings, Sosúa reunion documents and a scrapbook. Scheer's correspondence consists of typed, photocopied and hand-written correspondence with a variety of correspondents in several languages. The Scheer Family series includes Dezider Scheer's passport, original photographs of the Scheer family children, typed accounts of Scheer family Holocaust survivors and righteous Gentiles, and typed and handwritten memoirs. Also included are photocopied Scheer family trees, deportation lists, and photographs with notations identifying Scheer family relatives. Series III: Jewish Settlement in Sosua contains Sosúa-related press clippings in English and Spanish, as well as documents and a scrapbook related to the Sosúa reunions and settlers.
Dates
- 1940-2002
- Majority of material found within 1940-1991
Creator
- Scheer, Dezider, 1918- (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in German, English, Czech, Hungarian, Slovak and Spanish.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers.
Access Information
Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.
Readers may access the collection by visiting the Lillian Goldman Reading Room at the Center for Jewish History. We recommend reserving the collection in advance; please visit the LBI Online Catalog and click on the "Reserve" button.
Use Restrictions
There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:
Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org
Biographical and Historical Notes
In 1939, Scheer left Slovakia hoping to get to Palestine. In 1940 he was interned in a refugee camp near Salerno, Italy. A representative of the Dominican Republic Settlement Association came to the camp and selected a group of young people, including Scheer, to join a growing Jewish agricultural colony in Sosúa, Dominican Republic. Scheer spent 10 years in Sosúa clearing land, planting and raising vegetables, and establishing and maintaining a farm in addition to becoming the director of a school created for Jewish refugees and Dominican children. In 1950 Scheer left Sosúa to join his brother in Canada. Establishing a new life as a Canadian citizen, Scheer married in 1954 and remained in Montreal.
Scheer along with his wife, Shirley, and their three sons, Allan, Mark and Leonard attended the 50th anniversary of the settlement of Jewish refugees in the Dominican Republic in 1990.
Biographical Note
Dezider Scheer was born on April 26, 1918 in Mošovce, Slovakia. Throughout the 1930s, Jewish persecution under the Nazi regime steadily increased in Central Europe. Working as a teacher in 1938, Scheer was told he could no longer teach because he was a Jew. As the political situation worsened, Scheer looked to emigrate.
In 1939, Scheer left Slovakia hoping to get to Palestine. In 1940 he was interned in a refugee camp near Salerno, Italy. A representative of the Dominican Republic Settlement Association came to the camp and selected a group of young people, including Scheer, to join a growing Jewish agricultural colony in Sosúa, Dominican Republic. Scheer spent 10 years in Sosúa clearing land, planting and raising vegetables, and establishing and maintaining a farm in addition to becoming the director of a school created for Jewish refugees and Dominican children. In 1950 Scheer left Sosúa to join his brother in Canada. Establishing a new life as a Canadian citizen, Scheer married in 1954 and remained in Montreal.
Scheer along with his wife, Shirley, and their three sons, Allan, Mark and Leonard attended the 50th anniversary of the settlement of Jewish refugees in the Dominican Republic in 1990.
Historical Note
In 1938 many Jews in Central Europe were unable to find countries willing to take them in. The Évian Conference was convened at the initiative of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in July 1938 to discuss the issue of increasing numbers of Jewish refugees. In the end the Dominican Republic was the only country willing to accept a large number of Jews, offering citizenship for up to 100,000 refugees.
Extent
0.25 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection documents select periods throughout the life and career of Dezider Scheer. Containing material related to his personal and professional life, the collection is made up of correspondence and clippings, as well as original and photocopied photographs, historical documentation and ephemera.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into three series in the following manner:
Processing Information
With no perceptible original order, an order was imposed. Once evaluated, the contents of the collection were divided and grouped together by subject. Due to deterioration the photo album was taken apart; the one page with a notation was photocopied. Photographs were placed in archival envelopes for preservation purposes.
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Czechoslovakia
- Elementary school principals
- Emigration and immigration
- Evian Conference (Location of meeting: Evian-les-Bains, France). Date of meeting or treaty signing: (1938 :.)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Czechoslovakia
- Jewish refugees
- Jews -- Persecutions -- Slovakia
- Land settlement
- Official documents
- Photographs
- Scheer family
- Sosúa (Dominican Republic)
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of Dezider Scheer (1918- ) 1940-2002 AR 25398
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Kate Jadwin
- Date
- © 2012
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from DeziderScheer.xml
Revision Statements
- August 24, 2012 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository