The collection was donated to the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation by Sheldorn Dorn in 2012. Erna Kaufmann, Sheldon Dorn's mother, had fled Germany, alongside her brothers Alfred and Ernst, leaving behind their mother, Pauline, who could not procure a visa. The collection consists of the correspondence between family members in Germany, the United States and Sweden, respectively. They are dated between 1939 and 1942, after which point it became impossible for Pauline to send any letters. Pauline was ultimately sent to Theresienstadt and then to a death camp in Minsk, Ukraine where she was killed.