Materials relating to the Holocaust experiences of Anna Koppich

The collection relates to the experiences of Anna Koppich, a Hungarian doctor. The letters, which were translated from Hungarian to English by Agnes Kun and which were written by Anna to her husband, describe the German invasion of Hungary; their son's depression after his father had been taken to an unknown location by Hungarian gendarmes; the wearing of the yellow star; Anna and her son's life in the ghetto in Cluj, Romania, their deportation from the ghetto and arrival in Birkenau, and their separation; living conditions inside Auschwitz; and Anna's transfer to an unnamed camp. Richard J. Prystowsky's "Introduction" to the letters and the majority of his "Notes" were not published with the translated letters. Prystowsky wants it known that "[t]hese notes were part of a working draft. Since the vast majority of them were not used in the published version, they were left essentially unaltered, both substantively and stylistically." Richard Prystowsky wrote an "Introduction" and "Notes" describing or defining those locations, individuals, and foreign language terms which are briefly cited in the letters. Dr. Richard Prystowsky is a faculty member of the School of Humanities and Languages at Irvine Valley College, Irvine California Anna Koppich (1909-2005) was a Jewish doctor living in Hungary at the time of German occupation in 1944. She, her son, Gyurika (George), and her parents were incarcerated in the Kolozsvàr ghetto in 1944, after her husband, Ferri had already been deported to a labor camp. In the ghetto, Anna continued to work as a physician and care for the sick. In June 1944 Anna and her family and were transported to Auschwitz, where Anna was separated from her child and parents and sent to work in the camp as a physician. George and her parents were later killed in the camp. Once a hospital was established in Auschwitz, Anna was put to work and there she encountered Joseph Mengele. Anna remained detained in Auschwitz until the camp was liberated in 1945. After the war she was reunited with her husband and worked as a gynecologist in Bucharest, Romania. She eventually immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles County, California. Anna died in 2005 at the age of 90.