1. Walter’s Father, Maximillian 7 th November 1918

2. Background on Walter’s father. Walter’s father, Maximillian Kammerling served in the Imperial Austrian army during the first World War. The date of the previous photo is 7 th November 1918, just four days before the armistice. Walter feels this shows that Jews were full integrated in the life of the country. In 1938 there were 10% Jews in Vienna, 200.000 of a population of 2,000.000.

3. Ruthi Kammerling, Walter’s sister.

4. Ruthi Kammerling - a tragic story Ruthi was 17 and too old to qualify to leave on the Kindertransport with Walter. He remembers seeing his mother, Erika and Ruthi on the platform from the window of his train carriage as he left Vienna. Tragically she was too young to obtain a work permit as his older sister Erika did in July 1939, allowing her to escape and work in London. Ruthi died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in October 1944. In November 1944 the gas chambers of Auschwitz stopped working.

5. Background on Walter’s Family Walter found a box his father had left with non-Jewish friends when they were sent to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp near Prague. The box contained his family’s passports, documents and books. He also found postcards his parents had sent to non-Jewish friends in Vienna who had sent them food parcels. The last card his father sent was dated 2 Sept 1944, in which his father wrote that Ruthi had married Ernest on 25 June 1944. A friend of Walter’s, whom he had known since his Kindergarten days, gave him a book called ‘Totenbuch Theresienstadt’ (means Book of the Dead Theresienstadt) which lists all the names of the persons sent to Theresienstadt from Vienna and where they were sent to from there. Walter found the names of his family in that book and found out that they had been deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942. Walter’s father and Ernest, the brother-in-law he never knew, were subsequently deported to Auschwitz on 29 September 1944. His mother and Ruthi left Theresienstadt on the penultimate transport to Auschwitz on 23 October. Two days after leaving Theresienstadt his family was murdered; His father Max was 54, his mother Marie 50 and his sister Ruthi not quite 23 years old. In November 1944 the gas chambers of Auschwitz stopped working.

6. Erika Kammerling, Walter’s older sister

8. Walter’s “Alien’s” Registration book.

10. Passport belonging to Walter’s parents. Notice the “J” which is a forerunner of the yellow star that Jews had to wear. The names “Israel” and “Sarah” had to be added to their first names.

11. This passport contains the last photos Walter has of his parents.

12. Personal information from the Passport. Notice Walter's name does not appear with their children(kinder) as he had left on the Kindertransport.

13. Entries for the Kammerling family from the Theresienstadt death book. Theresienstadt was a concentration camp near Prague.

14. The last post card Walter’s father sent in July 1944.

15. Text of the postcard form Wlater’s father. It mentions that Ruthi married Ernst on 25 th June 1944.

17. Money issued by the Nazis for the camp.

18. This is a letter from a Headmistress who was a survivor, commenting poignantly on education.