Metadata: Archive of Gunnar Josephson
Collection
- Country:
- Sweden
- Holding institution:
- Swedish National Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Riksarkivet
- Postal address:
- Riksarkivet, 102 29 Stockholm
- Phone number:
- +46 (0)10-476 70 00
- Web address:
- https://riksarkivet.se/
- Reference number:
- SE/RA/721289
- Title:
- Archive of Gunnar Josephson
- Title (official language):
- Gunnar Josephsons arkiv
- Creator/accumulator:
- Josephson, Gunnar
- Date(s):
- 1920/1971
- Language:
- Swedish
- German
- English
- Extent:
- 0.2 linear metres (4 volumes)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains documents relating to the life and work of Gunnar Josephson, who was the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Jewish Community of Stockholm from 1936 to 1962. The records primarily consist of correspondence between Josephson and various prominent Jewish and non-Jewish individuals in Sweden, but also in Poland, Germany, Israel and the United States. These include, among others, fellow Jewish community board member Frank Hirsch about the plans to create of a Jewish refugee camp together with members of the Warburg family (1939), correspondence with Josephson’s brother in law, the Swedish ambassador to the United States Erik Boheman (1958), the acclaimed musician and cantor Leo Rosenblüth (1961), thanking him for his work among Scandinavian Jewry, Polish-Swedish author, and the Holocaust survivor, artist and writer Zenia Larsson (1962), Free Czech Forces member and United Jewish Appeal advocate Dita Natzor (1971). The letters concern topics ranging from purely personal affairs to the Jewish Community of Stockholm’s relief activities during the time of Nazi rule in Germany, as well as Josephson’s contributions to Scandinavian Jewish post-war organisational initiatives. Among the documents there is correspondence with the Jewish refugee activist in exile in London, Salomon Adler-Rudel, about his plan to rescue 20,000 Jewish children to Sweden in 1943. There is also a copy of the magazine Judisk Krönika (issue 39/1, 1970), containing an interview with Josephson regarding his activity in the Jewish Community of Stockholm, as well as select newspaper clippings related to Jewish societies that Josephson was active in, such as Israelitiska Yngligaförbundet (The Jewish Youth Association), an association that supported education of Jewish youths in which Josephson served as Chairman, and the Judiska Litteratursamfundet (the Jewish Literature Society) in which he was the Secretary.
Among the documents in the collection, there are two that especially shed light on Josephson’s personal reflection of his own relation to Judaism and Jewish identity. One is a memo that he wrote after having taken part in an evening of discussion with other prominent Swedish Jewish guests in the home of publisher Karl Otto Bonnier, in 1933. In the memo Josephson vehemently criticises a proposed strategy to avoid antisemitism through mixed marriages, made by Bonnier’s son, Gert Bonnier. The other document is a long letter that Josephson wrote to Rabbi Kurt Wilhelm in 1954 in which he, as a secular and Jewish liberal, reflects on his personal relationship to Judaism, Jewish traditions, history and culture.
The collection furthermore contains selected material related to Josephson’s presence in the publishing world, both domestically and internationally. These include letters concerning Josephson’s participation and activities in the Jewish Literature Society (1922-1927) and correspondences with Jüdischer Verlag in Berlin (1922-1925). Volume 2:1 furthermore contains an assortment of awards, commemorations and congratulatory letters from 1932 related to the 50-year jubilee of the Sandbergs bokhandel (the large bookstore in Stockholm where he was the director), from numerous Jewish peers and acquaintances, both in Sweden and abroad, while volume 2:2 contains a rich assortment of photographic material related to the same bookstore, including photographs from book releases, exhibitions, as well as photographs of the bookstore’s staff, owners and the executive board.
- Archival history:
- The archive was first donated to the National Archives of Sweden in 2004, with additional material being added to the archive in 2018 following a supplementary donation.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Gunnar Josephson (1889-1972) was born in Stockholm to bookseller Viktor Josephson and Annsofi Valentin. He was the older brother of art historian and director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre Ragnar Josephson (1891-1966). Josephson finished his studies in the Frans Schartaus Institute of Commerce in Stockholm in 1909. He pursued university studies on bookselling in München, Berlin and London from 1909 to 1911, after which he worked for the bookstore Nordiska bokhandeln until 1920. Josephson assumed the role of managing director for another bookstore, Sandbergs bokhandel, in Stockholm in 1920, a post which he held until 1956.
Josephson was a member of the Jewish Community of Stockholm, in which he was a member of the executive board from 1932, and its chairman from 1936 to 1962. From 1933 to 1945, Josephson was deeply engaged in the community’s relief efforts for European Jewry.
- Subject terms:
- Aid and relief
- Holocaust
- Jewish community
- Literature
- Refugees
- Finding aids:
- An index of Josephon’s letters by name and date can be found in the collection’s entry in the database of the Swedish National Archives.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://sok.riksarkivet.se/arkiv/SNIc3oduBqUvnDPzIeDow2
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum in Stockholm
