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AHC interview with Jean Hollander.
No full textMarch 21, 2016Jean Hollander was born as Josefine Habermann in 1928 in Vienna, Austria, where she grew up with her parents and siblings, Charlotte and Willhelm Habermann. Shortly after Anschluss, her parents were arrested for "attempted escape", when they tried to deposit money at a Rabbi's place in the second district. Her mother, Franceska Habermann, was released shortly after upon the intervention of her brother in Yugoslavia, but Jean’s father was sent to Buchenwald and then to Dachau for almost a year. Upon his release the family went by boat from Genoa to Panama and then to Cuba. Eventually, they immigrated to the United States, settling in Brooklyn, New York.Jean Hollander attended Brooklyn College and Columbia University before living as a poet in New Jersey.Austrian Heritage Collectio
AHC interview with Alice Ciosek.
No full textApril 23, 2016Alice Ciosek, née Fraenkel was born on March 9, 1920 in Vienna, Austria. She grew up in the 2nd district on Pazmanitengasse 24, together with her older sister Edith and their parents Max Fraenkel , a painter and decorator, and Frieda Fraenkel, née Amber). Alice finished an apprenticeship as a saleswoman in Vienna’s first district and then worked as a housemaid for several families; after 1938 she worked exclusively for Jewish families.Shortly after the Anschluss, Alice's sister Edith found a job as a housemaid in England and emigrated. In February 1939, Edith managed to find Alice a place as a housemaid for a family in Nottingham. Alice took the train from Austria to Belgium, then transferred to France from where she took a ship to Nottingham, England. A few months after Alice's arrival, Edith immigrated to the United States with her soon-to-be husband. Alice then worked for various families in the UK, predominantly located in London and its suburbs. Alice got married in England, and her sister provided affidavits for Alice and her husband to immigrate to the United States in November 1947. They moved to Brooklyn, New York, and Alice soon started her studies to become a (home) nurse. Alice had two children and settled in Staten Island.Max Fraenkel died in Theresienstadt. Frieda Fraenkel was deported to camps in Eastern Europe and perished in the Holocaust.Austrian Heritage Collectio
AHC interview with William Kestenbaum.
No full textOctober 26, 2016William Kestenbaum was born on Sep. 19, 1921, in Vienna. He grew up in an upper class house at Schottengasse 10 in the 1st District of Vienna. His father Alfred Kestenbaum, a famous eye surgeon, taught at the university of Vienna, and during WWI he had been running an eye hospital in Sarajevo. William Kestenbaum's mother Adelheid Kestenbaum was a physician as well. Both of his parents had been raised in Vienna and had met at the university of Vienna. After primary school, William Kestenbaum attended “LEH Grinzing”, a private school in Vienna and graduated in July of 1938 after Hitler had come to Austria. After the Anschluss a former American student of Alfred Kestenbaum had offered to send an affidavit, which the family gladly accepted: they left Austria for the USA in August 1938 after William Kestenbaum had finished his education. The Kestenbaums left, leaving all their money and their belongings except for their furniture behind. After having taken the train to Paris, they borrowed money in order to pay for the passage on the SS Normandie to New York.In New York William’s mother did not renew her medical degree, but his father studied to be a doctor again. Unfortunately, he was not as successful as he had been in Vienna. William Kestenbaum attended George Washington high school for a year in order to learn English and then went on to College. After graduating he got a job with Western Electric, which he held until he joined the Navy in 1944. In 1946 he returned to his old job at Western Electric.Austrian Heritage Collectio
Deported by the Nazis.
No full textEnglish translation by Vernon Mosheim of Alton, Ruth : Deportiert von den Nazis. Seattle, Washington, 1961. ME 9The memoirs begin with the family's deportation from their Berlin apartment on the evening of October 27th, 1941. They were taken to the Lewetzowstrasse synagogue and from there deported to the ghetto of Lodz (Litzmannstadt). Ruth's husband Julius (Ulli) was assigned the position of a transport supervisor, which granted them a small space to themselves. The memoir describes the living conditions, illnesses and deaths in the ghetto. She also recalls religious celebrations and cultural activities. The mass deportation of Jews from Lodz in September 1942 is described. Ruth's son Michael was exampted due to her husband's interventions. Ruth's mother, who was with them in the ghetto, died in 1943. In 1944 the famly was deported to Auschwitz and Stutthof. The living conditions of these camps are described. Ruth was transported to a work camp in Dresden, and was in the city during its destruction in February 1945. After the destruction of the city Ruth was transferred to a series of concentration camps, finally escaping on a death march. She was liberated by American soldiers in May 1945. In 1946 she was reunited with her son Michael, who had survived the Stutthof concentration camp.Ruth Alton-Tauber, née Ewer, was born in 1911 in Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany. She lived with her husband Julius and son Michael in Berlin. In 1941 the family was deported to the ghetto of Lodz (Litzmannstadt), where they were able to stay together until their deportation to Stutthof via Auschwitz. Ruth survived several concentration camps and was liberated on May 9th 1945.BreslauDresdenWorld War, 1939-1945Zwodau (Concentration or inernment camps
AHC interview with Alfred Josef Todrys.
No full textAugust 22, 2016Alfred Josef Todrys was born on July 9th 1924 in Vienna, Austria. His father was the representative of several bicycle companies. His Hungarian mother owned a meat market in Czernigasse, in the building where they lived. The family fled Austria in October 1938 to Paris. Due to an affidavit from a distant, wealthy relative in New York his father was able to obtain papers necessary for the emigration. They left for the United States in November 1938. Alfred became a US citizen in May 1943, when he joined the US Navy. After the war he started working in his father’s bike business.Austrian Heritage Collectio
AHC interview with Gustav Papanek.
No full textJune 1, 2016Gustav Papanek was born 1926 in Vienna, Austria, where he lived with his parents and with his younger brother in Antaeusgasse 41 in Hietzing, the 13th district of Vienna. Gustav's mother was a physician in her father's private hospital, the Fango Heilanstalt, on Lazarettgasse 20. Gustav's father Ernst was a member of the Vienna city council and a functionary in Austria’s socialist party, leading the "Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend". Gustav attended school at Maroltingergasse. He grew up without any creed and became interested in socialist ideologies at a very young age.In February 1934 during the Austrian civil war, his father, like other socialists in high position, had to leave Austria and moved to Czechoslovakia. Gustav continued to live with his mother and his brother in Vienna, seeing his father only during vacations and being spied on by members of the Christian Social party. After March 1938, Gustav Papanek, being declared Jewish according to the Nuremberg Laws, was transferred to the school in Wasagasse. His father obtained visas for France through his close connection to the French prime minister Leon Blum. The family left Austria by train in May 1938 and settled in a suburb of Paris. In the first year, Gustav and his brother attended the private American McJanett school before switching to a French public school. His mother worked as a children’s doctor, and his father took on a job, running children's homes in the same suburb. During his time in Paris, Gustav Papanek joined the Austrian Socialist Youth Group. With the occupation of France, the family moved to Marseille to obtain so-called emergency rescue visas for the United States. The family then went via Spain to Lisbon, where they took the Greek ship "Nea Hellas" to New York.The Papaneks arrived in New York in August 1940 and moved to the Upper West Side. Gustav Papanek passed the region's exams at the age of 15 and eventually started working as a farm laborer in upstate New York. He then attended Cornell University for agriculture, before joining the army at the age of 18. He was part of the de-Nazification team in Munich, mainly identifying Nazis on NS photographs. He graduated in 1947 and earned his Ph.D. at Harvard with the assistance of the G.I. Bill. Gustav Papanek became the American chief economist for Asia at the age of 26. His department was abolished under the McCarthy Era. He went on to teach economics at Harvard University.Austrian Heritage Collectio
The Finkenbergs of Hildesheim /
No full textThe history of the Jewish community in Hildesheim, Germany with an emphasis on the Finkenberg family, the descendents of Samuel Israel.Bibliography : pages 38-4
AHC interview with Frances Nisenbaum.
No full textJune 14, 2016Frances Nisenbaum, née Frieda Wallach, was born Aug. 11, 1926 in Vienna, Austria but grew up in Wöllersdorf, Lower Austria. In 1932 the family moved to Katzelsdorf close to Wiener Neustadt, where her parents Sigmund and Celia (née Kramer) Wallach established a chicken farm. Frances attended school in Wiener Neustadt until the summer of 1938. Following the November pogrom the parents were imprisoned; Sigmund Wallach was threatened and punished for keeping the family's savings secret. Eventually, the family was released after declaring their emigration to Cuba.Two months later, the family took the train to Hamburg and eventually to Lisbon, from where they emigrated to Cuba by boat. The Wallachs arrived in Cuba in January 1939 and Frieda was accommodated in an orphanage for a short time. The family soon found an apartment in Malecon, Havana. Frances was able to attend a Jewish school nearby. The Joint Distribution Committee supplied the family with money since they were not eligible to work. Due to the Polish emigration quota, Sigmund and Celia were not able to immigrate to the United States until shortly before the end of the war. In 1940, Frances immigrated to New York City on her own. She lived with her aunt in Uptown Manhattan until her parents came and took on jobs as housekeepers for families in Westchester.Frances was granted a scholarship for refugees for the Sanford School in Delaware. In 1944, Frances started the Arcadia University in Philadelphia. Over the years, Frances worked as a social worker and moved to Great Neck, NY.Austrian Heritage Collectio
AHC interview with Fernanda Steinhauser.
No full textSeptember 6, 2016Fernanda Steinhauser née Jentschmann was born March 7, 1921 in Zurich, Switzerland, where she grew up. Her parents were emigrants form Poland. Fernanda got married to the Austrian refugee Marcel Steinhauser, who had fled the Nazi regime and upon coming to Switzerland was interned in a labor camp for immigrants. In 1951 the couple got affidavits from Marcel Steinhauser's American relatives and immigrated to the US, where they started a restaurant.Austrian Heritage Collectio
[Interview with Lilo Goldenberg].
No full textLilo Goldenberg interviewed by Michael C. Reingold, Associate Director of the Thurnauer School of Music.digitizedMay 2015Liselotte Thekla Lamm was born October 16, 1920, in Berlin and raised in a traditional Jewish home. Her father Leo Lamm headed an international fashion and textile business in Berlin; her mother Margarete (Gretel) Lamm née Falk had studied piano at the Berlin Music Academy. Lilo's sister Anita was born in 1923 (Anita Gans née Lamm, born August 31, 1923 and died January 12, 1991 in Leonia, New Jersey). Lilo’s early schooling in Berlin was complemented by studying French at the Pensionnat de Jeunes Filles in Montreux, Switzerland and English at the Mansfield College in Hove-Brighton, England. After finishing school in Berlin, Lilo attended a secretarial school. In 1937, Lilo received an affidavit of support through cousins of her mother (Herbert and Leo Peek) in New York to immigrate to the United States. Her parents and her sister Anita joined her in 1938. Prior to that her mother had visited her in New York in March of 1938 for a week to explore options and obtain immigration visas for the rest of the family.Lilo’s first job in New York was at the law company Abraham Pomerantz before entering as a secretary at the international German Jewish newspaper Aufbau. At Aufbau she met her future husband Dr. Norbert Goldenberg, a physician, who was then the Vice-President of the German-Jewish Club (later called the New World Club). On March 10, 1940 Norbert and Lilo got married and Lilo started working as a medical secretary for her husband.Norbert and Lilo Goldenberg continued volunteering for the Aufbau and were actively involved in a number of Jewish help organizations and charitable benevolent societies. When early survivors of concentration camps arrived in the USA, Norbert Goldenberg worked for the United Restitution Organization to establish medical and financial restitution claims for victims. Both Norbert and Lilo Goldenberg worked actively for Israel Bonds and United Jewish Appeal (UJA). Moving to Teaneck, Lilo joined the Women's American ORT and served as the Women's American Ort Representative to UJA and Israel Bonds.Norbert Goldenberg passed away in 1974. Lilo married her second husband Hans G. Ollendorff (1907-1996) in 1982. He was chairman of the Board of HG Ollendorff, Inc, an international freight and fine arts transportation company. In 2000 Lilo Goldenberg married William Thurnauer (October 11, 1913-2006). Lilo Goldenberg has written essays throughout her life, reflecting on the history of her family, Jewish themes, and contemporary political developments. She passed away on November 2, 2017