Theodor Kleinsorge papers

Theodor Wilhelm Kleinsorge (1896-1945) was born on 13 May 1896 in Laßbruch, Germany to Hermann (1867-1926) and Anna Elise (née Schmidt, b. 1870) Kleinsorge. He had three brothers, Hermann (1897-1970), Walter (1902-1969), and Hubert (b. 1909); and one sister, Marie Elise (1904-2004). His father worked as a teacher. Theodor was a veteran of World War I, and was a prisoner-of-war in France. After the war he studied mining engineering and worked in several foundries and engineering firms. Theodor married Ruth Hammer (b. 1912) in 1935, and they had two children, Dieter (b. 1936) and Renate (b. 1941). During the war the family lived in Munich, Germany where Theodor worked for the Krauss-Maffei firm. On 4 July 1944 Theodor was fired from his job and arrested by the Gestapo as a non-Jewish political enemy. He was deported to the Dachau concentration camp on 23 September 1944 where he perished on 8 February 1945. After the war, his wife Ruth sought reparations for Theodor’s imprisonment and death. She married Gustav Sachs in 1948. The collection primarily documents the arrest of Theodor Kleinsorge, originally of Laßbruch, Germany, as a non-Jewish political enemy of the Nazis in July 1944; his deportation to the Dachau concentration camp in September 1944; and his death in Dachau in February 1945. Wartime materials include documentation about his arrest and deportation sent to Theodor’s wife, Ruth Kleinsorge; correspondence from Theodor and Ruth to Theodore’s mother Elise Kleinsorge; one letter written to Ruth from Theodor while imprisoned at Dachau; and several family photographs. Biographical material includes identification, education, and employment papers of Theodor; a family book (stammbuch); and reparations papers filed by Ruth Kleinsorge after her husband’s death. Also included are letters Theodor wrote his parents while a prisoner-of-war in France during World War I, and an exhibit catalog on Dachau from a German exhibition on resistance to the Third Reich in 1946.