Kurt Klein interviews, 1997-2000

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Summary

Creators:
Klein, Kurt
Abstract:
Oral history interviews with Kurt Klein conducted by his son Albert Klein between 1997-2000. The conversations focus on Klein's early life in Russia, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Austria before emigrating to the United States in 1950. The sound recordings are accompanied by transcripts and digitized family photographs.
Extent:
digital files; .TIF, MP3, .PDF (0.22 Gigabytes) and 1 manuscript box (0.2 Linear Feet)
Language:
In English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Kurt Klein interviews, Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Background

Scope and content:

Oral history interviews with Kurt Klein conducted by his son Albert Klein between 1997-2000. The conversations focus on Kurt Klein's early life in Russia, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Austria before immigrating to the United States in 1950. The interviews are accopanied by PDF transcripts of the recordings and 16 Klein family photographs.

Hoover does not hold physical copies of the sound recordings or the photographs.

Biographical / historical:

Kurt Klein was born on July 9, 1912 in Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, Russia. Klein spent most of his childhood in Kronau, living through the 1917 Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War, the New Economic Policy (NEP), and the start of collectivization. Klein worked as an elementary school teacher in numerous villages and later completed a formal Bachelor's degree at the Pädagogischen Hochschulen in Engels in the 1930s. In 1937 he was arrested and imprisoned for one year after being anonomosly denouced to Soviet authorities. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Klein worked as a "secretary-interpreter." Klein and his young family immigrated to the United States by ship in August 1950. The family was sponsored by the Mennonites, and they started off in Newton, Kansas, where Klein worked as a laborer. They later moved to Lawrence, and Kurt eventually got a teaching job at Kansas University and was able to continue his academic career, culminating in a professorship at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Acquisition information:
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 2023 and 2024.
Physical location:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. Use copies of digital materials are available onsite in our Reading Room via the Hoover Institution Library & Archives Digital Collections portal.

Terms of access:

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Kurt Klein interviews, Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Location of this collection:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003, US
Contact:
(650) 723-3563
hooverarchives@stanford.edu
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