Pages:
8 pages :
,
typewritten manuscript, photocopies.
Year of publication:
1990
Keywords:
Blank, Helen, 1919.
;
Emigration and immigration 1930s.
;
Kindertransports (Rescue operations)
;
Kristallnacht, 1938.
;
National socialism.
;
Antisemitism.
;
Socialism.
;
Violin.
;
Women authors.
;
New York (N.Y.)
;
Vienna (Austria)
;
Autobiographies
;
Biographical sources
;
Memoirs
Abstract:
The memoirs were written for a lecture at the New School in 1990. Reflections on Vienna and its culture and mentality. Helen Blank was born 1917 in Vienna, briefly before the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She grew up in a bourgeois family in the working-class neighborhood of Ottakring and had private violin lessons. During the depression her father lost his business and the family had to cope with a meager income. Achievements of the Social democratic policy in Vienna. Helen attended summer camps organized by the Social democrats. Reflections on antisemitism in Austria before and after 1938. School system in Vienna. Helen Blank attended an experimental school and was promoted to a upper-class Gymnasium, the former Officer's Daughter's Institute. Helen continued her violin lessons and became a promising protege. She also joined the Socialist Student movement (Sozialistische Mittelschueler). Recollections of Schattendorf and the massacre on demonstrating workers. Civil War in 1934. Underground meetings of the Socialist Youth. Nazi-takeover in 1938. Description of life in Nazi-Austria. Helen and her family were granted affidavits by their relatives in the United States. Helen got a teaching position at the Thalmud Thora School in Vienna and worked in the organization of the "Kindertransport". Recollections of the morning after the November pogrom in 1938, where Helen was rounded up by the SS with her fellow teachers at the Thalmud Thora School. She left Austria for the United States on January 12, 1939. During her time in New York she was a member of several organizations in New York, e.g. the Austrian Forum, the Austrian American Federation, and the Free Austrian Youth.
Note:
see also: "Helen Blank Collection" (AR 11286)
,
English
,
Synopsis in file
URL:
http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=400821&custom_att_2=simple_viewer
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