Resi Weglein Collection

The Resi Weglein Collection is arranged in three series and contains documents pertaining to Resi Weglein, her husband Siego (Siegmund, sometimes spelled Sigmund) Weglein, her children Heinz J. and Walter M. Weglein, and other members of the Weglein (Regensteiner) family. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, but there are also materials of the Theresienstadt period as well as clippings, notes, diaries, photographs, brochures, manuscripts, and book reviews.

The collection holds an assortment of documents that reflect various aspects of Resi Weglein's life and the lives of her family. There is an abundance of material relating to World War I, World War II and the Theresienstadt period, Resi and her family's postwar lives, and restitution claims.

The central topic of this collection is Resi Weglein’s memoirs on both her and her husband’s deportation to Theresienstadt and her work as a nurse in the health care of the camp while she was interned. Shortly after her arrival, she organized a makeshift "hospital" in one of the barrack's rooms to provide better care for ill inmates. She worked in three of the camp's barracks, or Kasernen: In the Kavaliers kaserne that housed blind and mentally ill prisoners, in the Dresden kaserne that accommodated women and their children, and in the Genie kaserne that sheltered the elderly. Her experiences from deportation to liberation are well represented by the abundance of her memoirs, published by now, and original materials documenting everyday existence in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Included are food coupons (Bezugsscheine), bank notes, identity cards, yellow stars, bands, and registration certificates. There is also a recommendation letter, praising Resi's nursing care in Theresienstadt, and her work pass. Materials associated with this topic are best represented in Series I (folder 11), and Series III (box 2, folders 9-12, and box 3, folders 5-6).

A secondary focus of the collection is correspondence which makes up the greatest part of the collection, and may be found in Series II (folders 1-5).

A small part of these letters are personal correspondence (folder 2), mostly between the Weglein couple and their youngest son Walter. Most of the letters are in German, with some Dutch and English, dealing with everyday life and expressing the worries and concerns of all involved.

Box 2, folder 1 of Series II holds correspondence pertaining to Walter's wife Michi Weglyn (née Nishiura) and the loss of her husband, including letters of condolence. It also contains an essay by Sachi Seko, who was a Japanese American from Utah working in the Japanese American redress and African American claims movement. The author remembers and honors the voluntary work of Walter Weglyn and his wife Michi, who shared the fight for Asian American civil rights issues such as the fight for restitution for Japanese Americans who were interned in concentration camps, and for Japanese Latin American internees and Japanese American railroad and mine workers fired on government orders during World War II. The folder holds further photographs of Walter and Michi Weglyn as well as newspaper clippings reflecting Walter's life and voluntary engagement.

The largest part of these letters is related to restitution and restitution claims. Included is correspondence of Siegmund Weglein and his wife Resi, and their son Walter, related to the restitution process and the payments. The flood of correspondence shows how difficult it was to get full restitution from the German government and that the Weglein family obtained partial restitution. Most of these materials are in German and may be found in Series II (folders 3-6). The restitution correspondence concerns the following areas: pension benefits; damages to body, health, and career advancement; and property.

A very few materials which could not be identified may be found in Box 2, folder 7 (Series II). This folder contains correspondence, documents required for emigration and immigration, and notes.

A third prominent topic frequently encountered in the collection is Resi Weglein's memoirs, published by her hometown of Ulm as a fiftieth anniversary commemorative. Materials associated with this topic are best represented in Series III (box 2, folders 9-12, and box 3, folder 5-6), and Series I (folder 11). These materials include biographical and historical materials of Resi Weglein and the Theresienstadt period, and consist mostly of notebooks, manuscripts, and correspondence. The notebooks and manuscripts of Resi Weglein hold information about her, her husband, and other Jewish residents from the Ulm region, who had been deported to Theresienstadt in 1942. These materials document and reflect Resi Weglein's experiences from the deportation to liberation, especially Resi's experience as a nurse in Theresienstadt.