Gross family documents

Papers of the Gross family, 1938-1945, documenting the experiences of an assimilated German Jewish family, some of whom managed to escape to safety and others who perished in the Holocaust. Comprising original correspondence between members of the family and friends before, during and after World War Two; personal papers such as certificates and photographs.

Wilhelm and Getrud Gross were typical middle class Germans living in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). Wilhelm was a Professor of Engineering and Gertrud was the daughter of wealthy industrialists. Her uncle, Karl Gross, had a substantial collection of art works and antiquities, which were confiscated and many of which are probably currently in museums in Eastern Europe. They were of Jewish ethnic origin, but were not religious and they integrated their children totally into German culture.

They had 3 children: Dorothea; an elder brother, Karl; and a younger brother Klaus. Wilhelm was one of 6 siblings. His sister, Emilie, married into the Kuppenheim family.

It appears from the correspondence that Wilhelm was incarcerated in Buchenwald shortly after Kristallnacht and released 5 weeks later on the proviso that he and his family leave Germany immediately. The grandparents fled to Holland in 1939 whence they were later deported and perished in the Holocaust. The three children came to Great Britain.

Chronological by document type

Open

Sybil Sharpe

Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.