Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Testimonials

Statement From The Los Angeles Museum Of The Holocaust

Dear Rex,

I am so grateful that you are the steward of this precious book and do not want to see it compromised or degraded. That is noble certainly. I wish you all the best finding a meaningful home for Magda's memory book and the lives and hopes and dreams it hold on its pages and between its amazingly, and poignantly resilient and durable covers.

Respectfully,
Samara Hutman
Executive Director
Los Angeles Museum Of The Holocaust

The Memory Book And Hungarian Jewish Forced Labor in Austria (1944/45)

Dear Rex,

This is a truly beautiful and moving document. It is great that you found the book and managed to identify the author. I wish you lots of success with your further research.

Eleonore

Eleonore Lappin-Eppel* Hungarian Jewish Forced Labor in Austria (1944/45)
"In the spring of 1944 more than 430.000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz, the majority of them was murdered on arrival. More than 15.000 Jews were sent to Strasshof rather than Auschwitz and had to do Slave Labor in the Eastern provinces of what was then the "Ostmark" and is today Austria. In the fall and winter of 1944 another app. 40.000 Hungarian Jews were sent to the Austro-Hungarian border where the so called "Südostwall" was constructed, a system of fortifications that was supposed to stop the Red Army. Jewish fortification workers were deployed to Western Hungary as well as Austria, both groups were under the command of the Austrian Nazi elite of the "Gaue" (provinces) Niederdonau and Styria. At the end of the war the Jewish workers were pulled back from the border regions and taken to concentration camps."

*Eleonore Lappin-Eppel is a researcher at the Austrian Academy of Science, Institute for Theater History and Culture Science and Lecturer at Graz University. Her research foci are Social History of Jews in Vienna (1918–1945); German-language Jewish Press; Holocaust in Austria; Hungarian- Jewish Forced Labor in Austria (1944/45); Politics of Holocaust Memory in Austria since 1945.

Central European University Jewish Studies Project

Dóra Földes
Program Coordinator
CEU Nationalism Studies Program
CEU Jewish Studies Project
1051 Budapest, Nador u. 9. FT 205
Phone: +36 1 327-3000/2499
Fax: +36 1 235 6102

From: Dora Foldes 
Subject: Adler Magda
Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2010, 8:06 AM

Dear Rex Miller,

I have visited your blog. The notebook is simply beautiful and this whole story is really moving.

Best regards,
Dora

Brandeis University's Valuation Of The Memory Book

Below is a message from a director of Brandeis University which conveys the Archivist at the University's judgment of the Memory Book:

From: Janice Fineman
Date: August 2, 2010 6:15:18 PM PDT
Subject: Book from Mr. Miller

I just saw an email from the Archivist and she wrote the following regarding Mr. Miller's book:

"This is a very important piece that would be most appropriately housed at either the Holocaust Museum or Wiesenthal Center. Given the many stipulations the donor has set, I believe he'd be more successful in trying to sell the work outright, without the other parameters. It would be a shame for the memory book to fall into private hands and not be made available to interested researchers."

You can tell him that we checked with Brandeis Library and they feel this is a very important piece that would most appropriately be housed at either the Holocaust Museum of Wiesenthal Center. We thank him for letting us know about this offer and wish him the best in finding a buyer.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Janice