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AHC Interview with Brenda Preminger 1914-1999
No full textEarly memories of the author’s childhood in Galicia. Recollections of the family’s escape from the invading Russians. Description of the family’s hardship during the early years in post-World War One Vienna. Adjustments to the assimilated environment. The family, however, still kept a kosher home, celebrated all the holidays and attended synagogue on the Sabbath. Experience of anti-Semitism during Brenda’s elementary school years. Later on she was excluded from the prestigious Döbling Gymnasium due to the numerus clausus. Brenda was therefore enrolled at the Chajesgymnasium, the only Jewish high school in Vienna. After graduation she applied at the Pharmaceutical Institute at Vienna University, but her application was once again rejected due the numerus clausus. Instead she started to study chemistry, where she also encountered anti-Semitism among some lecturers and students. Marriage in 1935. Awareness about political tensions in Austria. Recollections of the Anschluss. Brenda Preminger left Austria on the day of the Anschluss with a night train to Italy, where her husband was conducting business deals for his lumber business. Her parents got affidavits for America with the help of her mother’s relatives. Brenda and her husband applied for affidavits for Australia, since America was unobtainable to them due to their Polish citizenship. The couple stayed in Turino, Italy. In October 1938 they left for Australia. They settled in Sydney, where Brenda was able to find work in a department store. In August of 1944 they joined her parents in the United States, where her husband started a lumber business in New York.Nov. 12, 1999Brenda Preminger was born as Bertha Feldmann 1914 in Potroliczka, Galicia. During World War One the family fled the invading Russian troops and settled in Vienna in 1918. Brenda was a student at the Chajesgymnasium, the first Jewish high school in Vienna. After graduation she enrolled at university and was a student of chemistry. In 1938 she emigrated together with her husband to Australia via Italy. The author lives in the United States.Austrian Heritage Collectio
