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The transformation of a city: Salonika, 1908--1922.
No full textThis dissertation is a case study of the transformation of the multi-ethnic city of Salonika during the first two decades of the twentieth century. One of the most cosmopolitan cities of the Ottoman Empire, Salonika was a thriving commercial center accommodating several ethnic groups, among them Turks, Jews, Greeks, Armenians and Vlachs. This cosmopolitan environment was dramatically affected by the Young Turk Revolution (1908), the Balkan Wars (1912--1913), World War One and its aftermath (including the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey), and the 1917 fire which destroyed the physiognomy of the city. A most decisive event in this process of transformation was the incorporation of Salonika into the Greek state in 1912. This was followed by a series of measures aimed at making Salonika, to the extent that this was possible, a homogeneous Greek city. Consequently, early twentieth-century Salonika proved to be a microcosm of the difficulties and challenges faced by cities with diverse political, social, and cultural backgrounds when they become parts of modern nation-states.Drawing upon the local press, official documents from the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the papers of local activists and institutions, and a cross-section of the relevant historical literature, the dissertation explores the challenges faced by the Greeks as the latter sought to forge a single Greek national culture in Salonika after 1912. Implementing legal change of status did not automatically resolve the tensions that all societies experience while undergoing such transitions. The dissertation, then, illuminates aspects of national and ethnic politics in the era of World War One.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Minnesota, 2003.School code: 0130
India and the exile experience as mirrored in the writings of Jewish exiles and Indian writers.
No full textThis dissertation studies Jewish exile experience in India by analyzing fictional and autobiographical writings of exiles who fled from Nazi persecution during the Second World War and sought refuge in India. Writers such as Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Willy Haas, and Ernst Nathan Schaeffer lived in Indian exile and recorded their experiences. This study not only deals with their experiences in Indian exile, but also examines their impact on the Indian milieu through the study of Indian writings about Jewish emigration to India. Vishram Bedekar and Anita Desai constitute the group of Indian writers who are discussed in this dissertation.Due to its geopolitical situation, India occupied a unique status as country of asylum during the Second World War. As a British colony struggling for independence, government policies and attitudes towards the exiles were radically different from those in other parts of the world. The presence of refugees from Central Europe in colonial and post-colonial India marks a site of cross-cultural dialogue that is analyzed with the help of postcolonial theory and orientalism. The writings examined in this study reflect not only the legacy of British colonialism but also the challenges facing a new and free India. The dissertation's two-track approach to the study of Jewish exile experience in India creates a dual perspective by presenting the European perspective of India as well as the Indian perspective of the Europeans.This study presents discourse and counter-discourse by giving expression to the voice of the European Self and the voice of its Other, in this case India. The repetition of European history in Indian reality urges readers to confront the past. The democratic assessment of racial prejudice and chauvinism on both sides stresses the importance of a critical, decentered consciousness. This position of relativity and in-betweenness leads to an empathic universalism and a deracialization of culture, thus giving way to a new discourse that mediates between and among cultures rather than privileging one side over the other.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wayne State University, 2003.School code: 0254
Comedy of terrors: Humor and truth in Holocaust fiction and film.
No full textThis dissertation investigates the complex relationship between humor and truth-telling in Holocaust fiction and film. My research draws parallels between the rhetoric of deception and the rhetoric of humor, and accounts for the convergence of these narrative strategies in disparate Holocaust texts. Much of the Western philosophic tradition has considered both deception and humor to be harmful, irrational, and irresponsible. However, humor and deception have frequently been represented as ethically ambiguous within Holocaust literature and cinema. A survey of the primary philosophical objections to humor and deception highlights the clash between the ethics and aesthetics of Holocaust representation. My research targets: (1) the ways lying and laughter are imagined as ethical responses within the texts, as well as (2) the ways these two aspects may complicate an ethical encounter with the Holocaust as it is apprehended by works of the imagination.Narrative expressions of humor have a particular power to destabilize our conceptions of appropriate ethical responses to extreme experience. The issues my work explores are illustrated by analyses of texts in English (Martin Amis's Time's Arrow, Alan Isler's The Prince of West End Avenue, & Leslie Epstein's King of the Jews), Hebrew (Yoram Kaniuk's Adam Resurrected & A. B. Yehoshua's Mr. Mani), and Yiddish (Rachmil Bryks's A Cat in the Ghetto ). Recent popular films (Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful and Peter Kassovitz's Jakob the Liar) are also considered in detail. The goal of this project is to suggest if and on what grounds humor may be viewed as a rational and ethical response to the Holocaust.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2003.School code: 0093
AHC Interview with Susan Bronner
No full textSusan Bronner, nee Fleischer, was born in Hannover in 1912. She went to "Volksschule" (elementary school) in Sigmarszell, Bavaria, Germany, then the family moved to Vienna where they lived at Fischerstiege 1 in the first Viennese district. From 1923 to 1931, she was educated at "Schwarzwaldschule" (a prestigious high school) in Vienna. She left Vienna in September 1938 and immigrated to the United States via Croatia and England a year later. In the United States, she was secretary and homemaker
AHC interview with Senta Amon Raizen.
No full textSenta Amon Raizen was born in Vienna in 1924. She went to elementary and high school in Vienna. She left Vienna in September 1938 for England, where she attended the Friends Boarding School in Sidcot, Somerset, with a full scholarship from the Quakers. She immigrated to the US in December of 1939. In the US, she went to George School in Pensylvania (a sister school of 'Friends Boarding School'), and received an M.A. in Chemistry in 1945. She then had several jobs as chemist and in science education.Austrian Heritage CollectionDigital audi
If not for Hitler 1938-1957
No full textThe memoir starts with the events following the German annexion of Austria in March 1938. Anny Lerman was transferred to a Jewish school, the family was evicted from their apartment. She eyewitnessed Kristallnight, the pogrom in November 1938. In February, the family decides to flee from Austria. They took a train to Mistelbach, a village close to the Czechoslovakian border, and marched to the other side of the border during night. They could stay in Brno with her father's brother, but soon went illegally to Palestine. Anny Lerman describes the daily routine on the 3-month long journey on the ship to Palestine. The final pages are dedicated to her life in Palestine.Anny Lerman, 03/10/04Anny Lerman, nee Ulmer, was born on November 22, 1925, in Vienna where she lived on Friedrichknaverstrasse in the tenth Viennese district. She attended high school at the "Oberlyceum" at Jagdgasse in 1100 Vienna. After the "Anschluss", she was forced to transfer to a school for only Jewish girls, the "Radetzky Realschule" in 1030 Vienna. In fall 1938, she had to go to "Hauptschule fuer Maedchen" on Sechskruegelgasse in 1030 Vienna. She fled from Vienna in February 1939, crossing the border illegally into Czechoslovakia, and then taking a train to Brno. They boarded an illegal ship to Palestine a few weeks later. It headed to the Island of Keos, and arrived in Tel-Aviv, Palestine, on 07/04/1939 where she was educated at the K'far Hanoar Hadati boarding school. She married her husband Jona in 1945. Since 1957 she has been living in New York, USA.Austrian Heritage CollectionUlmer, Oskar, d. 1988Emigration and immigration; 1933-1945; CzechoslovakiaVielgut familyNazi Germany; persecution of Jews; 1933-1941Ulmer, Trud
AHC Interview with Lucy Alice White.
No full textLucy Alice White, nee Steuer, was born in Vienna on August 31, 1919. She lived at Karlsgasse 13 in the fourth Viennese district. She went to school there for eight years, then started a dressmaking apprenticeship. She fled from Vienna to England in May 1939. After seven years she moved to New York City, USA.Austrian Heritage Collectio
AHC Interview with Hermann Fitter.
No full textHermann Fitter (Fuetter) was born in Vienna in 1920. He fled from Vienna to France (Paris) and then USA. He came back to Europe between 08/1942-10/1945, serving the US Army.Austrian Heritage Collectio
