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DOROTHEA DRESSEL COLLECTION, 1930‐1986 [bulk 1930‐1947] 1995.A.0186

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW Washington, DC 20024‐2126 Tel. (202) 479‐9717 e‐mail: [email protected]

Descriptive summary

Title: Dorothea Dressel collection

Dates: 1930‐1986 [bulk 1930‐1947]

Accession number: 1995.A.0186

Creator: Dorothea Dressel

Extent: 4 folders, 1 oversized folder

Repository: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, Washington, DC 20024‐2126

Abstract: The Dorothea Dressel collection contains documents primarily concerning Dorothea Dressel’s husband, Friedrich Dressel, who was a member of the Communist party and was killed in Dachau in 1933. Records include correspondence concerning Friedrich’s death, and post‐war correspondence, including a letter from the writer Oskar Maria Graf. Other items include a death and marriage certificate, photographs, and newspaper clippings.

Languages: German

Administrative Information

Access: Collection is open for use, but is stored offsite. Please contact the Reference Desk more than seven days prior to visit in order to request access.

Reproduction and use: Collection is available for use. Material may be protected by copyright. Please contact reference staff for further information.

Preferred citation: Dorothea Dressel, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, Washington, DC

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Acquisition information: The Dorothea Dressel collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1994 by her granddaughter, Friederike Holbrook.

Accruals: Accruals may have been received since this collection was first processed, see archives catalog at collections.ushmm.org for further information.

Processing history: Michael Folkerts, July 2015

Biographical note Fritz Dressel (1896‐1933) was born in Welsberg/Oberfranken, and after his schooling, apprenticed as a carpenter. During his service as a soldier in , he was severely wounded, and returned to . Following the war, he became a member of the Communist Party of (KPD), and was active politically, serving as a district leader for the party in southern , and eventually serving as chair of the KPD delegation in the state parliament (Bayerischer Landtag) from 1928 until the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933. As the Nazis began targeting political opponents in the months following their rise to power, Dressel was arrested in May 1933 and imprisoned at Dachau, where he was tortured. On 7 May 1933 he succumbed to his wounds, although his death certificate listed the cause of death as suicide, this finding was disputed by his widow. One of his fellow prisoners and KPD leaders, Hans Beimler, subsequently escaped from Dachau and reported on what had happened to Dressel, in one of the first published accounts of the treatment of prisoners in Dachau.

Dorothea (Dora) Dressel (1897‐1993) married Fritz Dressel in 1916, and was likewise active politically in the years following World War I. When her husband protested the violence of the SA in Munich, she was arrested and held as hostage in the weeks prior to her husband’s arrest, being detained in the Stadelheim prison in Munich. She was ultimately released and survived the war, living until the age of 96.

Source: Weber, Hermann and Herbst, Andreas (editors). Deutsche Kommunisten. Biographisches Handbuch (Berlin: Karl Dietz Verlag, 2008). As found on the web site for the Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED Diktatur (http://www.bundesstiftung‐aufarbeitung.de/), accessed July 2015.

Scope and content of collection The Dorothea Dressel collection contains material primarily related to her husband’s death in 1933. The correspondence contains a letter from Fritz’s parents, asking Dorothea if the newspaper reporting his death was true. Another two letters concern Fritz’s gravesite, while other letters are of support from the United States, and a response from Dorothea thanking them for care packages. Also included is a letter from exiled German writer Oskar Maria Graf, who had known the Dressels prior to his emigration from Germany. Other items include a marriage and death certificate, and photographs of Munich, including a street that was named after Fritz Dressel, as well as photographs of his family and his grave site. The news clippings contains several various articles, as well as a newspaper account reporting Fritz’s death as a suicide. Also included is a receipt for the cash that was found on his body at his death.

System of arrangement The Dorothea Dressel collection is arranged as a single series.

Indexing terms Dressel, Friedrich

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Dressel, Dorothea Dressel, Margarete Ganz, John Graf, Oskar Maria

Dachau (Concentration camp)

World War, 1939‐1945‐‐Prisoners and prisons, German. World War, 1939‐1945‐‐Concentration camps. Political prisoners‐‐Germany. Holocaust, Jewish (1939‐1945) Communism‐‐Germany.

Munich (Germany)

CONTAINER LIST

Series 1: Dorothea Dressel collection, 1930‐1989 [bulk 1930‐1947]

Folder Title 1 Certificates, 1949 2 Correspondence, 1933‐1947 3 News clippings and receipt of cash, 1933 [see also oversized folder] 4 Photographs, 1930‐1989

Oversized folder

Folder Title 1 News clippings and receipt of cash, 1933 [oversized folder] (Not Digitized)

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