Language:
English
Pages:
17
,
typescript (photocopy).
Year of publication:
2001
Keywords:
Rathenau, Walther,
;
Antisemitism.
;
Education, Higher.
;
Jews Persecution 1933-1945.
;
Education, Secondary.
;
Fasts and feasts Judaism.
;
Women authors.
;
Berlin (Germany)
;
Germany History 1918-1933.
;
Heidelberg (Germany)
;
Paris (France)
;
Autobiographies
;
Biographical sources
;
Memoirs
Abstract:
The lecture was held at the Goethe Institute in San Francisco. Description of life in Berlin in the 1920s. Childhood in an assimilated well-to-do Jewish family the Weimar Republic. Her father was a lawyer and editor of the "Vossische Zeitung", who had his office in the front part of the apartment. Her mother a devoted singer who performed occasionally at the "Singakademie". Recollections of Sunday morning walks and visits to the museum at the center of the town. Earliest memories of food shortages during World War One. Private lessons in the aftermath of the war. Summer vacations in the German and Swiss Alps. Birth of her younger brother in 1921. Visits at her grandparents together with her older sister Irene. Memories of Christmas celebrations with family gatherings. Celebration of the Jewish holidays with her maternal grandparents, who were devoted orthodox Jews. Recollection of the assassination of Walter Rathenau in 1922, which made her aware of the undercurrent antisemitism. Her father became an active member of the Democratic party and was elected alderman (Stadtrat) of the city of Berlin in 1928. Description of the vibrating cultural life of Berlin. Eleanor attended the Auguste Viktoria Realgymnasium, an all-girls school preparing for university. Recollection of teachers and schoolmates. Theater and concerts. Private dance classes. Summer vacation in England to improve her English skills in 1931. Eleanor passed her final exams in 1932 and started to study medicine at the university in Heidelberg. Rising antisemitism and political unrest. With Hitler becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933 Jewish students were soon expelled from university. Soon thereafter Eleanor left Germany for Paris.
Note:
See also "Eleanor Alexander Collection" (AR 6414), and four other memoirs by Eleanor Alexander: ME 995, Me 1071, Me 1107, Me 1113
,
English
,
Synopsis in file
URL:
http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=400601&custom_att_2=simple_viewer
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