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Doris Perlhefter Rauch Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 25930

Scope and Contents

This collection comprises five series. Series I contains the personal papers of Doris Rauch. Series II contains the papers of Norbert Troller. Series III contains materials pertaining to Holocaust survivor Oscar Bittner and Oskar Jellinek, an author from Brno. Series IV contains bound manuscripts by various authors relating to the Holocaust. Series V contains all photographic materials in the collection, arranged chronologically and, where possible, by subject.

Series I contains many government-issued documents relating to Doris Rauch. Additionally, the personal papers of Rauch contain correspondence with researchers concerning her uncle, Norbert Troller, and correspondence with other Holocaust survivors and memorial associations.

Series II contains materials authored by or directly addressed to Norbert Troller. Additionally, the series contains a family tree drawn by Troller.

Series III contains Manuscripts by Oscar Bittner and newspaper articles and letters about Oskar Jellinek, a writer from Brno.

Series IV contains four bound manuscripts. The first two are both by Oscar Bittner and the latter three are eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust.

Series V has a substantial number of photographs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the First World War and Norbert Troller throughout his life.

Dates

  • 1915-2006

Creator

Language of Materials

The collection is in English and German, with small amounts in Czech and Polish.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

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 / Historical

Doris Rauch (née Perlhefter/Perlhefterová) was born August 26, 1920, in Brünn, Czechoslovakia (now Brno, Czechia). An only child, Rauch lost her father, Arthur Perlhefter, in 1936, leaving her and her mother, Alice, to grapple with the German annexation of Bohemia soon afterwards. Rauch had planned to attend university but was denied admission due to Nazi antisemitic policies, and instead attended textile school. After the outbreak of World War II, Rauch, her mother, and her uncle, the architect Norbert Troller, were deported to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt. The three survived there together while avoiding transportation further east until Rauch and her mother were relocated in September 1942 to a camp in Raasiku, Estonia, where the two were separated. After over two years of hard labor Rauch was relocated again to the camp at Bergen-Belsen in April 1945, where she would be liberated by Allied forces and placed in the care of the Danish Red Cross. Immediately engaging with the survivor community, Rauch worked as a secretary for the Jewish World Congress in Sweden until moving to the United States in May 1947, where she would die at her long-term residence in Washington, DC on June 23, 2011.

Rauch maintained a close relationship with her uncle Norbert Troller until his passing after many years running a New York-based architecture firm and designing Jewish community centers across the United States, and many of his papers were placed in her care. She shared with him a passion for family history and genealogy, working to preserve the memory of her father, a decorated veteran of the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War, and eventually Troller himself. Later in life Rauch corresponded with other German-speaking Holocaust survivors in the U.S. and expressed interest in memorial associations for those interred at Theresienstadt. She also took interest in the 1988 commemoration of Bohemian author Oscar Jellinek in Raach am Hochgebirge, Austria, a village where he had vacationed and which featured prominently in one of his writings. Jellinek's lyrical prose earned him the name “the singer from Raach” and Rauch collected newspaper clippings the monument dedication in his honor as well as letters from the author’s childhood friend to a literature professor in Vienna.

Extent

0.75 Linear Feet

2 Folders (2 oversized folder in shared oversized boxes)

Abstract

This collection pertains to the life of Doris Rauch (née Perlhefter), her uncle Norbert Troller, and fellow Holocaust survivors Oscar Bittner and Oscar Jellinek. It encompasses government documents and Rauch’s identification forms issued by the United States and Czechoslovakia, as well as her correspondence relating to family and Holocaust history in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Included are photographs of friends and family engaged in recreation or as posed portraits, the great majority in black and white. Authored by Norbert Troller himself are a memoir manuscript and family tree denoting those members killed during the Holocaust.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in five series:

  • Series I: Doris Rauch Materials, 1947-2006
  • Series II: Norbert Troller Materials, 1945-1980
  • Series III: Oscar Bittner and Oscar Jellinek Materials, 1936-1988
  • Series IV: Manuscripts, 1993-2006
  • Series V: Photographs, 1915-1996

Related Materials

Doris Rauch and Norbert Troller Papers; AN 2013.460.1; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Interview with Kurt Ticho Thomas; RG-50.549.02*0048; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Kriegserlebnisse / von Oscar Bittner, Oberleutnant a.D.; ME 1633; Leo Baeck Institute. Norbert Troller Collection, 1900-1993; AR 7268; Leo Baeck Institute.

Separated Materials

Prior to processing, the estate of Doris Perlhefter Rauch removed the majority of materials pertaining to Norbert Troller and donated them to an existing collection at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

During processing, three published books were removed: a history of Mid-Atlantic railroads, an instructional book in German and Greek, and Arthur Rauch’s copy of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The title pages of these removals were retained in the archival collection in Series I.

Title
Guide to the Papers of Doris Perlhefter Rauch
Author
Processed by Andrew Kaiser
Date
2022
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States