Gerard Caspary Collection

The collection contains mainly family correspondence along with transcriptions and translations into English by Gerard Caspary. The bulk of the correspondence (1940-1943) consists of about 150 letters between Sophie Caspary in Paris and her mother Martha Ehrlich (née Landmann, formerly Krautheimer) and sister Lotte Israelski in Sweden. Also included are letters between Martha and her grandson Gerard Caspary and Grete Westheimer, Gerard’s foster mother after the deportation of his parents. Some letters are only preserved as photocopies. A typewritten manuscript in box 2 titled “From the edge of the Holocaust: Letters from my mother and grandmother 1940-1943” presents Gerard Caspary’s translation of this correspondence into English accompanied by comments and his own memories. Included in the collection are also documents related to Caspary’s family, such as photocopies of deportation papers, inheritance matters, notes, and the correspondence of Gerard Caspary with archival institutions and relatives regarding family history. Three family trees (of the Landmann and Hahn families) can also be found in the collection as well as a book recalling the Landmann family history, written in 1956 for the golden anniversary of Martha’s brother Siegfried Landmann. The oldest document of the collection is a little book titled “Wanderbuch” belonging to the journeyman Lazarus Landmann, clothier and grandfather of Martha Ehrlich, née Landmann from the 1830s. The folders of photographs include pictures of Gerard’s family members (bulk 1930-1945) including a written photo postcard, a photograph of Richard Krautheimer mounted on a plastic board, and numerous photos of Gerard in various times from childhood until old age.