Hanna Kunz Family Collection
Scope and Content Note
The Hanna Kunz Family Collection documents the efforts made by family members to receive restitution for the loss of their property in Central Europe, including their estate in Bartošovice (Partschendorf). Especially evident in the collection are the efforts made by Hanna Kunz and her father Arthur Czeczowiczka. Documents contained here consist of correspondence, offical documents, application forms and their accompanying supporting documents, notes and copies of documents relating to restitution cases, and a few photographs.
Personal papers and genealogical information is located in Series I. These primarily consist of identification and naturalization documents, and include Czech birth certificates and British and American naturalization applications. In addition, this series holds a copy of the book Geschichte der Gemeinde Partschendorf with notations.
Correspondence will be found in several areas of the collection depending on its type. Personal correspondence, including that between family members and personal acquaintances, is located in Series II. Restitution correspondence, which comprises the bulk of the collection, is located in Series III. Series III includes some correspondence between Hanna Kunz and her relatives Cara and Edwin Czeczowiczka and Eva Novotna; this correspondence can be personal in nature but is more often concerned with restitution efforts. The bulk of the restitution correspondence is with Hanna Kunz's legal representation, and includes letters between the legal offices and various agencies as well as between the lawyers and their client Hanna Kunz.
Restitution documentation in Series III includes not only the aforementioned correspondence, but also property lists, application forms, copies of related official papers, and notes. Hanna Kunz and other family members made claims against German, Czech, and Austrian agents. This series particularly focuses primarily on restitution for the Bartošovice estate, but also contains material on claims for Arthur and Irma Czeczowiczka's art collection and the Vienna apartment.
Dates
- Creation: 1905-2005
- Creation: Majority of material found in 1939-2000
Creator
- Kunz, Hanna, 1917- (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in German, Czech, and English.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers. Use MF 758.
Access Information
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 "Request" 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 Note
In 1900 Salomon Czeczowiczka along with his son Arthur bought an estate near Neu Titschein in Moravia, then called Partschendorf, now known as Bartošovice and located in the present Czech Republic. This estate included farmland as well as the Schloß Partschendorf. They improved the agricultural property by adding drainage and fertilization. Their resulting financial success allowed them to purchase additional properties in St. Johann (near the Austrian border), which was sold in 1934, and in Andrychau (now in Poland). In 1913 the family added an alcohol refinery and factory for sugar beets to the main estate in Bartošovice. The family's financial support of the local community included the building of a school as well as the renovation of the local church, for which Salomon and Arthur Czeczowiczka were memorialized with a stained glass window and marble plaque. This estate would be seized by the National Socialists in October 1938, and was eventually given to Himmler before being nationalized by the Czechoslovak government following the Second World War. Some of the furnshings of the Schloß Partschendorf were given to a Lebensborn facility in Munich.
Hanna Kunz née Czeczowiczka was born in Vienna on January 23, 1917, the first daughter of Arthur and Irma (née Adler) Czeczowiczka. She had a younger sister, Erica. Much of her childhood was spent in various areas, especially at the family's main residences in Vienna and Bartošovice (then Partschendorf), but also in Italy, Switzerland, and England. In 1937 Hanna Czeczowiczka married Walter Kunz from Karlsbad, Bohemia, who worked as an assistant for her father. They resided at the estate in Bartošovice until the occupation of the area by the National Socialists in 1938 and left Czechoslovakia in March 1939, when the family fled via Prague and Poland to London. Hanna Kunz's parents, Arthur and Irma Czeczowiczka, had previously emigrated to London.
Following the death of her husband in April 1940, Hanna Kunz trained for and received a position as a draftswoman for the Royal Coal Commission. Concurrently she served as a volunteer member of the fire department until the end of World War II, for which she received a Defence Medal.
Hanna Kunz came to the United States in 1950, and settled near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For the following twenty-seven years she was employed at a department store and continued to work after her retirement as a translator for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Extent
4 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection describes the restitution appeals made by Hanna Kunz and Czeczowiczka family members. In addition, it includes a small amount of personal papers detailing the family history as well as some personal correspondence. Other material includes copies of official documents and application forms and accompanying papers that provide details on the family's properties in Bartošovice and Vienna.
Arrangement
The collection contains three series arranged in the following manner:
- Series I: Family Papers and History, 1905-2003
- Subseries 1: General, 1905-2003
- Subseries 2: Hanna Kunz, 1938-1993
- Subseries 3: Arthur Czeczowiczka, 1947-1961
- Subseries 4: Other Family Papers, 1904-1992
- Series II: Correspondence, 1939-2002
- Subseries 1: Family Correspondence, 1939-1991
- Subseries 2: Hannz Kunz, 1940-2002
- Subseries 3: Arthur Czeczowiczka, 1939-1957
- Subseries 4: Other Correspondence, 1940-1956
- Series III: Restitution, 1917-2005
- Subseries 1: Art Restitution, 1917-2005
- Subseries 2: Bartošovice Property, 1931-2002
- Subseries 3: Foreign Compensation Commission, 1938-2004
- Subseries 4: General, 1917-2002
- Subseries 5: International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), 1999-2005
- Subseries 6: Vienna Property, 1938-2004
Microfilm
This collection is available on 9 reels of microfilm:
- Reel 1: 1/1-1/40
- Reel 2: 1/41-1/70
- Reel 3: 2/1-2/23
- Reel 4: 2/24-2/41
- Reel 5: 2/42-3/6
- Reel 6: 3/7-3/24
- Reel 7: 3/25-4/6
- Reel 8: 4/7-4/24
- Reel 9: 4/25-4/50
Subject
- Czeczowiczka, Arthur, 1875-1957 (Person)
- Kunz, Hanna, 1917- (Person)
- Simon, Erica, 1918- (Person)
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of the Hanna Kunz (1917- ) Family Collection 1905-2005 AR 25253/ MF 758
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Dianne Oummia
- Date
- © 2007
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from HannaKunz.xml
Revision Statements
- 2010-03-23 : encoding of linking to digital objects from finding aid was changed from <extref> to <dao> through dao_conv.xsl
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository