Mignon Langnas papers

Contains postcards received by Mignon Langnas (donor's mother), a Jewish nurse in Vienna, from Viennese Jews that had been deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp; the majority of the correspondence consists of inscriptions written on pre-printed postcards stating that the writer received packages sent by Mignon. Mignon remained in Vienna and sent packages to over thirty families interned in Theresienstadt, the majority of whom were ultimately deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp where they are assumed to have perished. Mignon was liberated in Vienna and ultimately immigrated to the United States, joining her children and husband who fled before the war. Mignon Langnas (1903-1949) was born in Boryslav (Ukraine) to Moses Rottenberg and Charlotte Schleifer. She had two sisters Gustyl and Nelly. Her family immigrated to Vienna in 1914. In 1928 she married Leon Langnas. Their first child, Erika (b. 1929), died when she was three. They had two more children, Manuela (b. 1933) and Georg (b. 1935). Mignon worked as a nurse in Vienna. After the German annexation of Austria in 1938, her family made plans immigrate to the United States. Mignon remained behind to care for her elderly parents. Her children traveled to the United States with Philip Weinstein, a family friend, in December 1939 aboard the SS Saturnia. Her husband Leon was among those aboard the MS St. Louis who were denied entry into Cuba in 1939. He was sent to the Kitchener camp in England before eventually making his way to the United States to join his children and Mignon’s sister Nelly in New York. Mignon survived the Holocaust in Vienna, and immigrated to the United States in 1946 to join her family. During the war, she chronicled her life in a diary and correspondence. She also sent care packages to Viennese Jews imprisoned in Theresienstadt. Copyright Holder: Mr. George Langnas