Hanna Kunz Family Collection

By

Kunz, Hanna

Type

Book

Material

Archival material

Publication info

Notes

The Hanna Kunz Family Collection documents the efforts made by family members to receive restitution for the loss of their property in Central Europe, including their estate in Bartoovice (Partschendorf). Especially evident in the collection are the efforts made by Hanna Kunz and her father Arthur Czeczowiczka. Documents contained here consist of correspondence, offical documents, application forms and their accompanying supporting documents, notes and copies of documents relating to restitution cases, and a few photographs.

Personal papers and genealogical information is located in Series I. These primarily consist of identification and naturalization documents, and include Czech birth certificates and British and American naturalization applications. In addition, this series holds a copy of the book Geschichte der Gemeinde Partschendorf with notations.

Correspondence will be found in several areas of the collection depending on its type. Personal correspondence, including that between family members and personal acquaintances, is located in Series II. Restitution correspondence, which comprises the bulk of the collection, is located in Series III. Series III includes some correspondence between Hanna Kunz and her relatives Cara and Edwin Czeczowiczka and Eva Novotna; this correspondence can be personal in nature but is more often concerned with restitution efforts. The bulk of the restitution correspondence is with Hanna Kunz's legal representation, and includes letters between the legal offices and various agencies as well as between the lawyers and their client Hanna Kunz.

Restitution documentation in Series III includes not only the aforementioned correspondence, but also property lists, application forms, copies of related official papers, and notes. Hanna Kunz and other family members made claims against German, Czech, and Austrian agents. This series particularly focuses primarily on restitution for the Bartoovice estate, but also contains material on claims for Arthur and Irma Czeczowiczka's art collection and the Vienna apartment.

In 1900 Salomon Czeczowiczka along with his son Arthur bought an estate near Neu Titschein in Moravia, then called Partschendorf, now known as Bartoovice and located in the present Czech Republic. This estate included farmland as well as the Schloss Partschendorf. They improved the agricultural property by adding drainage and fertilization. Their resulting financial success allowed them to purchase additional properties in St. Johann (near the Austrian border), which was sold in 1934, and in Andrychau (now in Poland). In 1913 the family added an alcohol refinery and factory for sugar beets to the main estate in Bartoovice. The family's financial support of the local community included the building of a school as well as the renovation of the local church, for which Salomon and Arthur Czeczowiczka were memorialized with a stained glass window and marble plaque. This estate would be seized by the National Socialists in October 1938, and was eventually given to Himmler before being nationalized by the Czechoslovak government following the Second World War. Some of the furnshings of the Schloß Partschendorf were given to a Lebensborn facility in Munich.

Hanna Kunz née Czeczowiczka was born in Vienna on January 23, 1917, the first daughter of Arthur and Irma (née Adler) Czeczowiczka. She had a younger sister, Erica. Much of her childhood was spent in

Hanna Kunz née Czeczowiczka was born in Vienna on January 23, 1917, the first daughter of Arthur and Irma (née Adler) Czeczowiczka. She had a younger sister, Erica. Much of her childhood was spent in various areas, especially at the family's main residences in Vienna and Bartoovice (then Partschendorf), but also in Italy, Switzerland, and England. In 1937 Hanna Czeczowiczka married Walter Kunz from Karlsbad, Bohemia, who worked as an assistant for her father. They resided at the estate in Bartoovice until the occupation of the area by the National Socialists in 1938 and left Czechoslovakia in March 1939, when the family fled via Prague and Poland to London. Hanna Kunz's parents, Arthur and Irma Czeczowiczka, had previously emigrated to London.

Following the death of her husband in April 1940, Hanna Kunz trained for and received a position as a draftswoman for the Royal Coal Commission. Concurrently she served as a volunteer member of the fire department until the end of World War II, for which she received a Defence Medal.

German

English

Czech

Subjects

1933-1945 , Agriculture , Agriculturists , Archival material , Czeczowiczka, Arthur, 1875-1957 , Czeczowiczka, Salmon, 1847-1937 , Emigration and immigration , Great Britain , Jews , Kunz, Hanna (nee Czeczowiczka), 1917- , Partschendorf

Language

German

Identifiers

Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q51486795