Heinrich Busse Collection

This collection contains a substantial amount of correspondence written by Heinrich and Toni Busse while in hiding in Berlin 1939-1945, as well as manuscript drafts of Heinrich Busse's anti-war writings and some of his personal papers and official documents.

Letters and cards from Heinrich and Toni Busse to their three children 1939 April 13 - 1945 October 11, Berlin:

These letters and cards were mostly written by the parents to their three daughters, two of whom had emigrated to England and one had married earlier and moved to Teheran. These letters describe the ever worsening situation for Jews in Germany -- being forced from their houses or apartments with several families lodged together, and the attempts by parents and children to find a way to emigrate. A farewell letter,, dated 1943 May 21, written by Heinrich Busse to his children and (nephew?) Hanns in Switzerland was delivered in person by a Swiss citizen. It recounts Toni Busse's deportation to Auschwitz and the last postcard he received from her, and describes Heinrich's attempts to survive underground in Berlin. The last letter by Heinrich Busse (1945 October 11) after the liberation describes how he copes with the terrible conditions and destruction in Berlin.

The remaining folders in the collection are comprised mostly of manuscript drafts of Heinrich Busse's anti-war writings, but there are also a number of documents and letters, mostly from the post-war period. Of special note among these items, for the most part housed in folder 2, are identification cards issued to Heinrich Busse in the immediate postwar years while he still lived in Berlin. One of these cards is from the Opfer des Faschismus, and other related materials, including several from the Jewish Community of Berlin, contain official confirmation that he survived in hiding. The remaining materials from the post-war period include some personal correspondence, and documents, pamphlets and official correspondence pertaining to Busse's emigration over England to the United States and to his restitution claims. The collection also contains a couple of photographs of the Busse family, and some German goverment bonds, apparently issued in the early 1930s.

Series II contains drafts of Heinrich Busse's various anti-war writings and related correspondence and notes. These manuscripts include two handwritten drafts of Sind Kriege vermeidbar oder nicht? and two differently titled typescript drafts of a work which would later be published in book form as Ohne Krieg.