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AHC Interview with George Rudolf Stein.
No full textGeorge Rudolf Stein was born in Vienna in 1919, where he lived at Porzellangasse 19 in the ninth district. He went to school at "Realschule R-1", and graduated from the "Bundeslehr- und Versuchsanstalt fuer Textilindustrie", a textile school. He was a member of Techeleth Lavan ("Blau Weiss"). At the time of the Anschluss, he worked in Moenchengladbach, Germany for his father's partners (Herz & Stern KG). He fled to England (London) where he stayed from 3/27/1939 until 12/27/1939. In London, he was supported by Jewish organizations. He boarded the 'HMS Newfundland' and arrived in Boston, USA, 3 weeks later. He joined the US Army from June of 1944 until June of 1946. He was in the Infantry, and served in France and Germany as a machine gunner and Intelligence NCO. From 1940 until 1941, he worled as a weaver in New York City. Later he worked as a fabric designer in Illinois, and as a loomfixer and patternweaver.Austrian Heritage Collectio
Novel ambitions: Four early Jewish-American writers and their professional formation.
No full textDuring the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, many Jews emerged from the Lower East Side to stake a claim in the field of American letters as novelists, poets, and intellectuals. My dissertation examines the professional development of three of these individuals---Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, and Henry Roth---and asks a question largely overlooked in the field of Jewish-American studies: why would a poor, non-native-speaking immigrant pursue an economically risky career as a writer?Adapting Pierre Bourdieu's cultural insights, I set aside the romantic paradigms of authorship and try to explore the professional origins of Jewish-American writing by situating it within a nexus of social and cultural relationships. I contend that Cahan, Yezierska, and Roth were acutely aware of the economic pitfalls that came with being a writer but argue that for each author cultural advancement possessed a "redemptive" potential unavailable simply through economic achievement. Throughout this dissertation I explore the various ways these authors demonstrate their mastery of English in an attempt to distance themselves from the Yiddish-speaking masses and join an elite group of American writers.I contrast the professional ambitions of these immigrant authors to those of the Anglo-American writer Henry Harland, who, during the 1880s, produced a series of "philo-semitic" novels under the pseudonym Sidney Luska. Not only did these novels claim to provide a window into the Jewish world, Harland selected the name Luska to convince readers that their author was himself a Jew. But, I argue, these books have little to do with Jews; rather, they are borne out of a set of aristocratic cultural and social values that denigrated realism's mimetic codes. The way Harland utilizes Jewish characters to articulate these values is central to my analysis of his literary development.Ultimately, I contend, each author's career was shaped by social and cultural desires that were so pressing they inevitably made their way into his/her literary work. A good deal of this dissertation, therefore, is devoted to demonstrating how these early Jewish-American narratives-in their various stylistic and formal manifestations-may be read as allegories that encode the deepest professional concerns of their authors.Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of New York, 2003.School code: 0046
Raoul Wallenberg, the American War Refugee Board and the last minute effort to save Hungary's Jews.
No full textThis study examines the events of the Holocaust, American anti-semitism, the creation of the American War Refugee Board and the efforts of one individual, Raoul Wallenberg, on behalf of Hungary's Jews. Representing the interests of the American War Refugee Board in his role as a member of the Swedish legation in Budapest, Wallenberg valiantly stood up for an estimated 100,000 Hungarian Jews and saved them from the certain death promised them by the Germans in the final days of the war. Through new eyewitness testimony by survivors speaking for the first time since the end of the war, the horror of the events and the courage of Wallenberg stands out against the background of apparent indifference by Western leaders as millions of Europe's Jews were systematically murdered by the Third Reich.This study looks at Raoul Wallenberg and how he came to Budapest in 1944 at the age of 31 as a member of the Swedish legation and rescuer of Jews. It also examines the various paths by which the news of the Jewish tragedy came to the attention of Allied leaders and how those leaders responded and why. For decades, the historiography after the end of World War II on the Holocaust left the reader with the impression that Allied leaders were not aware of the Nazi plan for the Final Solution and the murder of Europe's Jews. However, a review of official documentation from the time, of journals and newspapers published during World War II and after, and memoirs and eyewitness testimony from survivors speaking more than 50 years later, make it clear that Allied leaders and many others were aware of Hitler's plans. Yet the Allied leaders, men such as Roosevelt, chose not to act on the information until 1944 when it became politically necessary to do so. This action was the creation of the American War Refugee Board in January 1944.By January 1944, one of the only remaining and largely intact Jewish community in occupied Europe was that of Hungary, and it was to that country that Wallenberg was sent, and where he stood his ground against the Germans. With sheer force of will, insight, courage and the occasional payment of the necessary bribe, he would demonstrate what one man could do to help the Jews.While the War Refugee Board came into existence only at the end of the War, it was able to help in the rescue of between one hundred and fifty to two hundred Jews in occupied Europe. This success leaves one with the unanswered question of how many more could have been saved if the Board had been created in 1942 when the Allied leaders first became aware of Hitler's Final Solution.Thesis (Ph.D.)--State University of New York at Albany, 2003.School code: 0668
Gosh I'm good : Memoirs of a modest man /
No full textdigitizedPreface by Joe CoulombeLeo Orsten was born 1913 in Trebitsch, Moravia (today Třebíč, Czech Republic), the son of Alfred Ornstein and Erna, née Lowy. Leo was a lawyer in Czechoslovakia. After the Nazi occupation he fled to England, where he served in the 1st Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade. His parents perished in the Holocaust.After WW II he married Hanna, née Wallerstein, and the couple immigrated to the United States, where Leo became a real estate broker
Avenues of intellectual resistance in the ghetto Theresienstadt : escape through the ghetto central library, reading, storytelling, and lecturing.
No full textMaster’s paper at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science
The biography of Kurt Tauber, part II 1993-2003
No full textThis book is dedicated to Kurt Tauber’s wife Greta, who died ten years before. In 19 chapters he describes what happens in his life and how he feels since his wife has died. For example, he got in touch with the daughter of Albert Lang, a missing cousin, the son of his father’s sister Rose. She was still living in Vienna with her family. This was the beginning of the acquaintance with his family in Austria. Further in the book, he tells about his family in the USA. In another chapter, Kurt Tauber writes about his political views. The book is illustrated with many family pictures as well as newspaper clippings and documents.Kurt Tauber, January 2004Kurt Tauber was born in 1914 as the third of four children in an orthodox Jewish family in Vienna. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna. In January 1938 he married his long-time fiance Greta. The couple emigrated to the United States in 1939, where they established in a baking business. Kurt Tauber lives in Connecticut.Austrian Heritage Collectio
AHC Interview with Marcel Seidler.
No full textMarcel Seidler was born in Vienna in 1921. He lived at Gentzgasse 132 in the 18th district, and went to high school at the "Wasagymnasium" which he had to leave in 1938. He was arrested in Vienna by the Gestapo in October of 1938, brought to the Gestapo headquaters, where he escaped. He then immediatly left Vienna, stayed in Belgium for two days, went to London, England which he left in November of 1940 for the USA. He went to night school and studied at Rutgers University, Newark, NJ from 1942 until 1945. In the US, he worked in the textile business.Austrian Heritage Collectio
AHC interview with Martin Prochnik.
No full textDigital audioMartin Prochnik was born in Vienna in 1931. He left Vienna in September of 1938 for Switzerland where stayed for one year. Via Italy he came to the USA where he arrived in June of 1939. In the US, he attended Harvard College from 1949-53, then Boston University. He worked as geologist, and diplomat / foreign service officer. From 1960-95, he was a science advisor to secretary of Interior, and the director for international S+T cooperation at the State Department.Austrian Heritage Collectio
Case closed: Holocaust survivors in America, 1946--1954.
No full textThe canon of scholarly works on the Holocaust is vast. Little attention, however, has been paid to the postwar period when the Jewish Displaced Persons left Europe. This dissertation explores the experience of those 140,000 survivors who settled in the US from 1946 to 1954. I study the reception of Holocaust survivors by the American Jewish community and the immigrants' reaction to this reception which challenge the myths of silence and success that have characterized the conventional narrative of survivors' postwar experience.Of the 140,000 survivors, at least 55 percent settled in New York City, but 45 percent of the immigrants went elsewhere. My study examines both groups through the national and New York refugee organizations that resettled Holocaust survivors; the United Service for New Americans (USNA) and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA), respectively. By studying NYANA documents, this work brings to light the experience of the majority who stayed in New York City. Through USNA and local cooperating agencies' records, I also explore the experience in two other communities; Denver, Colorado and Columbia, South Carolina. Archival material such as agency case documents, contemporary journal articles by social workers, and oral testimonies are used. Particularly important are 350 survivor case files from this period which show how agency policy translated into treatment of the refugee clientele.How effective were the Jewish agencies in helping the DPs? What was the help offered and how do we define success? That the Jewish Community organized to help the refugees cannot be disputed. The kind of assistance they gave, however, was limited to short term material aid even though the survivors needed and wanted more. While the agencies argued that limited care and immediate employment encouraged the refugees' speedy acculturation, their policies were driven by economic considerations first and humanitarian considerations second. What the agencies had not bargained on was that these were refugees for whom the Holocaust was still present in their lives. Rather than a narrative of success, the survivors' postwar experience was fraught with difficulties to which their hosts were often blind.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Clark University, 2003.School code: 0048