Language:
English
Pages:
84
,
bound typescript; illustrated.
Year of publication:
2005
Keywords:
Boehm family.
;
Kanfer family.
;
Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Wien.
;
Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
;
Dachau (Concentration camp)
;
Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien.
;
Antisemitism
;
Architects.
;
Education, Higher
;
Emigration and immigration
;
Jews Persecutions
;
Kindertransports (Rescue operations)
;
Austria History Anschluss, 1938.
;
England Emigration and immigration.
;
Shanghai (China)
;
Vienna (Austria)
;
Autobiographies
;
Biographical sources
;
Memoirs
Abstract:
The memoir includes a pedigree, photographs, representing the whole family, grandparents, parents, himself, in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The manuscript starts with Robert Kanfer's grandparents' background, then covers the Boehm family--his wife Susie's family. Susie's father was Jewish. Her Catholic mother helped her husband's parents to get a visa. Her grandfather was Alfred Boehm. The next chapter covers vague memories of the "Anschluss" in March 1938. Robert Kanfer's father, Max Kanfer, was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. There he spent 4 months, and 4 more in Dachau concentration camp. Robert Kanfer's mother Bertha was forced to scrub off the streets which is vividly described. He describes a few more of these cruel daily antisemitic attacks. Since the family had a very limited budget, obtaining visas became quite difficult. The family had to separate and reunite only many years later, in 1947. The father emigrated to Shanghai, Robert could escape on a Kindertransport in 1939. He would spend the coming eleven years in England. Robert's brother Fritz was eager to move back to Vienna, and wanted his family to join him. He arranged for Robert to study architecture at the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, which finally convinced Robert to join his brother. So he moved back to Vienna in 1950. He started to study with famous Austrian architect Clemens Holzmeister, but later changed to the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, to study with Franz Schuster. After graduation, he soon opened his own office. Throughout his career, he designed 10 Novotel hotels in Austria. He got married to his first wife Evi, they got a son, Roland. Soon they got a divorce, and Robert married Susy who he had known for a long time.
Note:
English
URL:
http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=491481&custom_att_2=simple_viewer
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