Robert Fraser wrote: Personally. I find it
inconceivable that anyone should want to sell such a
document as a card posted >from Theresienstadt on the
open market. Even if it's of no personal value, it is
of value to a keeper of records, such as the Yad
Vashem or ... I have seen a vast collection in the
Jewish museum in Vienna of unclaimed family judaica
....the remnants of families that are no more.

Robert - we have no idea what happened to documents of
victims of Theresienstadt and other concentration
camps. A "thank you" card sent *from* Theresienstadt
to Vienna in WW2 might have been cleared out by the
fledgling IKG when they were reinstated after the
Judenrat era. Luckily some were rescued >from a skip or
perhaps the documents were sent to a second-hand
bookshop and a few survived. Perhaps the reviled
BREUERs of the Judenrat kept these cards - but
what happened to the BREUERs?

As to letters *to* concentration inmates who were
murdered, perhaps survivors rescued them? In turn,
on their deaths, they may have been cleared out by a
house clearance company or by unrelated people who had
no idea what to do with them.

The card I saw was being sold by a dealer in Israel -
I too thought it would be more seemly if it was given
to a museum; however there are collectors/dealers who
display the cards on the internet for all to see.

Some can be found by typing: SPRONR

into the browser. According to Jewishgen rules I am
cannot post the URL as it refers to a commercial
dealer in Vienna. I hate to think of the various
routes these cards ended up in Vienna.

Here you will see a postcard >from Moritz SPRONR {sic}
This is a mistranscription. The name should be SPRONZ.
It is a rare name in Vienna. There are two SPRONZ
buried [see cemetery database*] in Vienna:

Amalia age 83 died 09.02.1934 ZF Tor IV. 22 6 32
Hermine age 41 died 06.01.1914 ZF Tor I. 50 34 31A

There is one Viennese victim [see Letter to the
Stars*]: Isidor was born in ? on 25.02.1864. His last
known address was Vienna 1, Kohlmarkt 5/11. Isidor
SPRONZ was deported to Riga on 6.02.1942. No
further data is available.

There is no mention on Moritz on Letter to the Stars
but he listed on the Yad Vashem database*: Moritz
SPRONZ was born in Verbo in 1887. During the war
he lived in Vienna at 2, Pillersdorfgasse 9. Moritz
survived the Shoah was liberated at Terezin.
I assume Verbo is Verboc/Vrbovce, now in Slovakia.

As well as Moritz, his card survives. I would like to
think that the oats sent by the BREUERs helped
save his life. Not surprisingly Moritz was never
reunited with his postcard. His family, if he had any,
may have no idea of its existence, especially as it is
indexed under SPRONR!

So here's a 2005 challenge to our SIG. If you can find
Moritz SPRONZ's family you could alert them to his
historic card. This is the sort of research which is
miraculously possible as a result of the internet.
Enter "Verbo" into the Yad Vashem database under
location and SPRONZ in the name slot and "surprise,
surprise" you will find five SPRONZ entries - two have
pages of testimony >from Israel with 1999 addresses.
I need a willing volunteer to follow this through.

If you follow every trail, you usually find a
fascinating tale. This one could have a happy ending.

And finally, please make sure that your memorabilia
does not end up with a dealer or house-clearance
agency.

Celia Male [UK]

* Website references:

http://friedhof.ikg-wien.at/search.asp?lang=de
http://www.lettertothestars.at
http://www.yadvashem.org