Dr. Louis Rene Beres collection

Sigismund and Margaret Beres were Austrian Jewish citizens who fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 to Switzerland, where they remained throughout World War II and where their son, Louis Rene Beres was born in 1945. The family immigrated to the United States in 1947. Photographic vintage images and documents illustrating the experiences of Sigismund and Margaret Beres, Austrian Jewish citizens who fled to Switzerland from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938. Included are images of their lives in Switzerland, Sigismund specifically, in forced labor, as well as a July 1938 police certificate documenting Sigismund's travel to Vienna to acquire an American visa. Also included are identification cards issued in Switzerland in 1946 which illustrate the family’s immigration to the United States in 1947.