Alexander and Hella Guhrauer: personal papers

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Bookmark:http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb1556-wl1755

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Scope and Content

This collection contains the personal papers of the Guhrauer family from Braunschweig whose son Alexander Israel Guhrauer and his future wife Hella Sara Freudenthal fled Nazi-Germany in the 1930s. Included are Hella Guhrauer's German nationality certificate and certificate of registration for aliens (1755/2); Alexander Guhrauer's tax clearance certificate ('Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung') and application for the Ex-service (Non-British) Association (1755/1); letter from his father, Max Guhrauer, sent just before their departure for Theresienstadt concentration camp and his death certificate; Paula Guhrauer's savings card of the Bank of the autonomous Jewish self-government of Theresienstadt, Theresienstadt banknotes (1755/3), her registration certificate of the Czechoslovak Repatriation Office and German passport. Also included are an article from St Gallener Tageblatt (1945) entitled 'Das "Musterghetto" Theresienstadt' and articles relating to the opening ceremony of a Holocaust memorial in Hannover in 1994.

Administrative / Biographical History

Hella Sara Guhrauer (born 1913, née Freudenthal) from Braunschweig emigrated to London in May 1934. In 1939 she got married to Alexander Israel Guhrauer (born 1901 in Braunschweig), who had just arrived from Germany as a Jewish refugee. Alexander had spent six months at Buchenwald concentration camp before his emigration. He stayed at Kitchener internment camp, Richborough near Sandwich, Kent, before enlisting in Her Majesty's Forces in November 1939.

Alexander's parents, Max Guhrauer (born 1869) and Paula Guhrauer (born 1875) were transported to Theresienstadt in 1943. Max Guhrauer perished two months after arrival whereas his wife was liberated. According to some notes found in the collection, Hella's father, Iwan Freudenthal (1869-1941) died in Hannover and her mother, Clara Freudenthal (born 1877) was transported to the East and possibly died in Riga in the 1940s.