Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Gotfryd, Bernard, 1924-
- Abstract:
- The Bernard Gotfryd papers reflect Gotfryd's status as both an author of true stories about the Holocaust and a professional photographer. The papers consist of clippings, correspondence, and numerous photographs and include hundreds of letters of appreciation from students and teachers of classes that Gotfryd spoke to about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor.
- Extent:
- 9 manuscript boxes (3.6 Linear Feet)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Bernard Gotfryd papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Bernard Gotfryd papers reflect Gotfryd's status as both an author of true stories about the Holocaust and a professional photographer. The papers consist of clippings, correspondence, and numerous photographs. The correspondence series includes hundreds of letters of appreciation from students and teachers of classes that Gotfryd spoke to about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. These letters show how moved Gotfryd's audiences were by his talks. The correspondence also contains readers' reactions to Anton the Dove Fancier, the compilation of Gotfryd's stories about the Holocaust and his youth in Poland.
The photographs in the collection cover the range of Gotfryd's work for Newsweek magazine: the prints depict politicians, writers, and artists. In almost all cases, the subjects of the photographs are identified.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Bernard Gotfryd was a Holocaust survivor and celebrated staff photographer for Newsweek for more than three decades until his retirement in the late 1980s.
Bernard Gotfryd was born in 1924, in Radom, Poland, to Jewish parents. During World War II, he worked as an apprentice photographer at a photo studio in the Radom ghetto. His involvement with the Polish underground led to his imprisonment in a concentration camp. He spent time in six concentration camps before his liberation from Gusen II in May 1945. Two years later he immigrated to the United States. After several years of service with the U.S. Army Signal Corps, in 1957 Gotfryd became a photojournalist for Newsweek. During his thirty years with the magazine, he took portraits of many of the most influential and important people of the day--statesmen, politicians, writers, musicians, painters--as well as those of many other, less prominent individuals.
After his retirement, Gotfryd turned to writing and lecturing. His extraordinary wartime reminiscences were published as some thirty autobiographical short stories under the title Anton the Dove Fancier. He lectured extensively about the Holocaust, particularly to high school students in the New York City area. Several hundred letters from grateful listeners, included in his papers, bear witness to the effectiveness of his presentations. Gotfryd died in 2016.
- Acquisition information:
- Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 2008.
- Physical location:
- Hoover Institution Library & Archives
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- World politics -- Pictorial works
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
- Terms of access:
-
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Bernard Gotfryd papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Location of this collection:
-
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford UniversityStanford, CA 94305-6003, US
- Contact:
- (650) 723-3563