Franz Sobotka papers

Franz (František) Sobotka was born January 10, 1896 in Dlouhá Lhota (Czech Republic) and lived in Klattau (Klatovy) with his wife Rosa (Růženka) and son Vladimir (Vláda). He was a high school teacher and gave anti-Nazi lectures to political and labor organizations. He was arrested by the Gestapo in September 1939 and transferred to Buchenwald, where he remained under prisoner number 5243 until liberation in April 1945. The Franz Sobotka papers consist primarily of letters Franz wrote to his family while imprisoned at Buchenwald. The letters relate how Sobotka misses his family, include instructions for sending him packages, and inquire about news of relatives and friends. The collection also includes letters to him from his wife and son, many with draft replies from him on the versos, as well as a 1944 map of the Weimar SS garrison command (Standortbereich), stamped "SS-Kraftfahr Ausbildungs und Ersatz regiment!"