New Finding Aid Available:
Oberlander Family Fonds
The Oberlander family fonds offers a glimpse into the life of Peter Oberlander, an Austrian-Jewish refugee whose family fled Nazi persecution during the Second World War. Born in Vienna on November 29, 1922, Peter was the son of Dr. Fritz Oberlander and Margaret Josefine Oberlander (née Braun). In March 1938, following the Anschluss (the Nazi annexation of Austria), Peter’s father was arrested by the Gestapo and detained for four months. Upon his release, he was forced to sign over all his possessions and leave Austria within 48 hours. This traumatic event set the family on a path of displacement and uncertainty.
The Oberlanders emigrated to England in September 1938, where they were each designated as category C enemy aliens, exempting them from both internment and restrictions. The categories were established by tribunals the day after England declared war on Germany, on September 3, 1939, under Defence Regulation 18B, which was promulgated under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939. These tribunals were tasked with classifying Germans and Austrians into three categories based on their perceived threats to national security: category A (suspected threats, to be interned immediately), category B (exempt from internment with restrictions), and category C (no threats, exempt from internment and restrictions). Dr. Fritz Oberlander worked for the Overseas Settlement Department of the Jewish Refugee Committee, assisting other refugees, and brought his mother and sister, Magdalena (Magda), to England. He registered the family to immigrate to the United States in 1938 through the quota immigration system.
On May 12, 1940, in response to the escalating threat of Nazi Germany, the Aliens Department of the Home Office expanded the category designation to include the arrest of all males between sixteen and sixty, reclassifying them as threats. Peter, then a seventeen-year-old boarding school student at the Folkestone Technical Institute in England, was reclassified as category A enemy alien. This designated him as a threat to the country’s safety and required that he be interned in various internment camps, first in England, then in Canada, after his deportation there on July 4, 1940. In Canada, Peter was detained at several internment camps, including Camp T in Trois-Rivieres, Camp I in Ile-Aux-Noix and Camp B in Fredericton.
The Oberlander Family fonds include records documenting these experiences, with personal diaries, notebooks and correspondence that offer details of Peter’s internment and the separation of his family. These materials shed light on the internment process itself, the oppressive anti-Jewish immigration policies of the time, and the tireless efforts of his parents to get information about their son and secure his release. Using his influence and the assistance of Benjamin Robinson, a Montreal attorney, Dr. Fritz Oberlander was able to negotiate Peter’s release from Camp S on Saint Helen’s Island in 1942.
These records provide valuable insights not only into the challenges faced by the Oberlanders but also into the broader experiences of displaced persons during the Second World War. They illuminate the personal toll of internment, the complexities of refugee status, and the efforts of families to reunite.
Notable items in the fonds include:
- A handwritten letter from Peter Oberlander to his parents, written shortly after his release from internment.

[H. Peter Oberlander’s first letter after camp], donated to the VHEC by Judy, Tim and Wendy Oberlander, 2024.011.006.
- A diary in which Peter reflects on the internment camp‘s conditions, including side notes about sleeping arrangements in Canterbury and Liverpool, as well as rumours about the relocation of the kosher kitchen. Also included are two small sketches.

[Internment diary entry 1], donated to the VHEC by Judy, Tim and Wendy Oberlander, 2024.011.001.

[Internment diary entry 2], donated to the VHEC by Judy, Tim and Wendy Oberlander, 2024.011.001.

[Internment diary entry 3], donated to the VHEC by Judy, Tim and Wendy Oberlander, 2024.011.001.
- A customs declaration for a parcel containing candies sent to Peter Oberlander while he was interned at Camp B by his parents in New York. The back of the document features the addresses of both parties.

[Customs declaration], donated to the VHEC by Judy, Tim and Wendy Oberlander, 2024.011.021.
- A handwritten note from Peter Oberlander‘s family, which accompanied the parcel.

[Note accompanying customs declaration], donated to the VHEC by Judy, Tim and Wendy Oberlander, 2024.011.020.
These materials were also used as source material for Wendy Oberlander’s award-winning documentary, Nothing to be Written Here (1996). You can learn more about the documentary film here.
In 2019, Wendy Oberlander donated an initial set of materials to the VHEC. After the passing of their mother, Cornelia Hahn-Oberlander, in 2021, Wendy, Tim and Judy Oberlander discovered additional materials in their mother’s home that they had not been aware of. Many of these materials were then donated to the VHEC in 2024.
Thanks to funding from the British Columbia History Digitization Program, the materials donated in 2019 have been fully processed and digitized as part of a Peter Oberlander Collection: Digitization & Accessibility Project and are now accessible at collection.vhec.org. Select materials from the 2024 donation have also been made accessible here, but many of the items are still awaiting processing.
Further Reading
Books available at VHEC Library:
Zachor Magazine: