Red Cross Correspondence from Franziska Distler in Nazi-Occupied Vienna to Alexander Distler, Interned in Camp I, Ottawa, Canada

Authors

Object ID

2019.2.312ab

Object Name

Correspondence

Date

7-3-1940

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

a: Envelope “COMITÉ INTERNATIONAL DE LA CROIX-ROUGE-GENÈVE” addressed to “Mr. Alexander DISLER.” B: Document with Red Cross symbol in upper left corner, marked “Deutsches Rotes Kreuz,” stamped with date “10 AUG 1940” near top.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Alexander Distler, Polish-born civil engineer and architect residing in Vienna, fled to Great Britain after Kristallnacht and was placed with other refugees in Kitchener Camp in Richborough Kent. Distler was one of 6,000 refugees to escape Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia for Great Britain. Britain’s fear of a war with Germany, however, meant that many of the refugees would be treated as possible “enemy aliens”. Distler would be deported to Canada and confined to Camp I. He had been in contact with his mother Franziska Distler in Vienna who was apparently unaware that “Aleksander” had relocated and was concerned that she had not heard from him. In one letter eventually reaching him in Camp I she expresses her sadness over the lack of communication and hopes he is well (2019.2.321ab). She asks him to be “lighthearted.” Messages within the Greater Germany (including Austria) were sent by way of the Red Cross and forwarded to their respective destinations. Only 25 words were allowed both front and back, and the mail was censored.

[Related items 2019.2.310 - 2019.2.323]

Dimensions

a: 4 1/2 x 6" b: 8 1/4 x 5 1/2"

Keywords

Alexander Distler, Franziska Distler, Internment Camp I, Canada

Subcollection

Distler, Personal

Recommended Citation

"Red Cross Correspondence from Franziska Distler in Nazi-Occupied Vienna to Alexander Distler, Interned in Camp I, Ottawa, Canada" (1940). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.312ab.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1634