Ernst and Vera Velden: personal papers

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Bookmark:http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb1556-wl1715

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Scope and Content

This collection contains the personal papers of Ernst and Vera Velden who emigrated separately as Jewish refugees to England in 1939 and later got married. Included are emigration papers such as birth certificates, school certificates, Heimatschein; and application and certificates of naturalisation. Also includes a photograph; correspondence from family and friends relating to news about the lives of relatives, support for Jewish relief funds, Ernst's search for employment and application for an American visa; and papers relating to war compensation claims for both Ernst and Vera Velden.

Administrative / Biographical History

Ernst Felix Velden (changed his name from Vorzimmer to Velden in 1920, also known as Arnost and Ernest) was born in Stropnice, Czech Republic, in 1901. He was one of three children of Herman and Charlotte Vorzimmer. Ernst worked as a lawyer in Prague in the 1930s. He originally applied for an emigration visa to the United States in 1938 before travelling to London for business purposes in 1939, where he remained as a refugee. In 1944 he married Vera Lobatz, born in 1913 in Berlin. She also arrived in England in 1939 and stayed with family friends whilst finishing her school education. Their son Ronald George Herman Velden was born in 1946. Ernst and Vera were both naturalised in 1950.

Ernst's father, Herman Vorzimmer, died before the Second World War. His mother, Charlotte Vorzimmer, was deported and murdered in the Holocaust.