Kern-Martin Family Collection

The Kern-Martin Family Collection documents the lives of members of the related Temple, Kern-Martin, and Kern families and their efforts to maintain contact with each other while the family was separated across multiple continents. The bulk of the collection consists of personal correspondence –- primarily correspondence exchanged between family members -– and family photographs. Other documentation includes official documents, notebooks and a diary, genealogical research and writing, educational documents, poems, and recipes.

Most of the major family members of this collection had the same or similar names as other family members,; therefore they will be referred to throughout this finding aid by their nicknames as identified in the biographical note. Much of the collection's papers focuses on the three Temple siblings, children of Rudolf and Thesi (Therese) Temple: Susan, Rudi (Rudolph), and Gucka (Therese). Susan Temple's papers comprise the largest series of this collection, Series I. Among the papers of this series is her extensive personal correspondence that forms the first subseries of Series I. Her correspondence primarily consists of letters and postcards sent to her, especially from her mother, sister, and brother, but also from other family members and friends, including close friends as well as colleagues. The correspondence from her family members provides many details of her family members' individual lives and experiences and news once the family had separated, and Susan and Rudi were sent abroad. Postwar letters from Gucka, who survived the war in Vienna, provide details of the fate of their mother, Thesi and aunt, Marie Kern, who were deported to Theresienstadt. Letters from Susan’s large circle of friends as well as her colleagues and a small amount of professional correspondence to Susan Temple provide some evidence of her work for the BBC and interest in acting. Documentation in this series especially pertains to her education in Vienna and England and her creative interests.

Correspondence of Susan Temple's sister Gucka as well as their mother will be found in Series III: Other Family Members. This series holds the papers of various family members, including Gucka Temple's many postwar letters to her sister. This series also contains multiple folders of correspondence sent to Thesi Temple by friends and other family members, including correspondence and postcards from World War I and the 1920s.

Papers of Susan Temple's cousin, Richard Kern-Martin, form the second series of this collection. This series also consists largely of correspondence, including numerous letters from his mother, Marie Kern-Martinek, but also including many letters he sent to Susan with details of his life at school in England. Notable are also his school notebooks from Vienna, filled with essays he wrote as a boy about local sites, history, and school subjects, and his diary kept at his English school, including many details of boarding school life.

The final series of this collection consists of a large amount of photographs, including group photos of Temple and Kern-Martin family members. Many photos feature the three Temple siblings, both together and separately. Many other photos remain unidentified.