Hilda Sargent collection

The donor's mother, Hilda Sargent (1914-1969), trained as a shorthand typist before the war. The Pitman company encouraged shorthand penpals. She took great advantage of the scheme and wrote to dozens of Pitman penpals including one Austrian law student, Josef Stedronsky, an ardent Nazi. Stedronsky was an excellent cartoonist/ draughtsman and filled his letters with drawings and sketches, many of a ‘propaganda’ nature with Nazi symbolism. One is a chilling image of the Nazi sun rising behind St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. We learn from his correspondence that he was a member of the Nazi party and that he spent some time in prison Nothing is known of the fate of Josef Stedronsky after the last letter dated 19 April 1936. The papers comprise the following: Two copies of her typed and edited transcrips “Extracts of Letters from an Austrian Law Student 1932-1936) - 40 pages. Stedronsky was imprisoned for protesting and part of the letters are his prison diary. Photograph of Reichs-party day in Nuremberg Sep 1937 with Stedronsky in 10th row of marching Austrian Legionnaires Photograph of Stedronsky in ’storm trooper’ uniform with two comrades dated Sep 1937 3 Holiday photographs Jul 1935 annotated. Original letters (84 pages mostly written both sides) in English and Pitman shorthand - plus Hilda Sargent's written or typed transcription of Stedronsky’s shorthand sections. Mother’s poetry notebook with poems inspired by her correspondence - ‘Vienna and You’ and one entitled ’The Problem’ dated July 1933 when she was an 18-year old contrasting the three men in her life (one of them Stedronsky and one she eventually married (the donor's father) Open