Horringer family correspondence

Consists of correspondence from members of the family of Ludwig and Dora Horringer Kessler of Vienna, Austria, to distant relatives, the Levy family, in the United States. The correspondence documents the desperation of the Kesslers to leave Europe and the efforts of the Levys (and their relatives) to bring the family to the United States. The correspondence dates from July 1938 to the Kesslers' arrival in New York in March 1939. Ludwig Kessler was born on April 17, 1904 in Vienna, Austria. He married Dora Horinger, originally of Brody, Poland (b. August 14, 1904), the daughter of Josef Horinger. Dora had at least three siblings: Anna, Emma, and Moritz (Maurice). On August 1, 1930, Ludwig and Dora had a son, Heinz. The family lived in Vienna. After the Anschluss, the Kesslers made contact with Moe and Ethel (nee Horringer) Levy of Baltimore, MD. Ethel was related to Dora Horinger through her father, Nathan Horringer, who had emigrated to the United States decades earlier, but had returned on vacation to Europe in the late 1920s and made contact with his relatives in Vienna. Moe involved his siblings, S. Frank Levy (a businessman in Washington, DC), William Levy (a Walt Disney distributor in London), and other relatives, Jack and Hannah Lewis, in providing the financial means and political pressure to bring the Kessler family to the United States. The Kesslers arrived in New York in early March 1939. Dora and her siblings all managed to emigrate, but her father, Josef, perished in the Holocaust.