Language:
English
Pages:
98 + 34
,
typescript (photocopy).
Year of publication:
1999
Keywords:
Altbach, Ludwig
;
Ellis Island Immigration Station (N.Y. and N.J.)
;
HIAS (Agency)
;
Jews Persecutions.
;
Education, Higher.
;
Kindertransports (Rescue operations)
;
Kristallnacht, 1938.
;
Antisemitism.
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
World War, 1939-1945.
;
Soccer.
;
Engineers.
;
Austria History Anschluss, 1938.
;
New York (N.Y.)
;
Argentina.
;
Eggenburg (Austria)
;
Peru.
;
United States.
;
Vienna (Austria)
;
Autobiographies
;
Biographical sources
;
Memoirs
Abstract:
The memoirs were written in 1999. Childhood memories in a small town in Lower Austria. Passion for playing football (soccer). Recollections of daily life with rituals of coffeehouse visits and family dinners in the countryside. First experiences of antisemitism in the mid 1930s. Rising Nazi movement and illegal meetings in the local community. Annexation of Austria in 1938. First encounters with anti-Jewish regulations and discrimination by neighbors and acquaintances. Walter experienced severe difficulties at school and was frequently insulted and beaten up. Decision to leave school. The family was forced to leave Eggenburg soon thereafter, and the town declared itself "Judenfrei" (free of Jews). Move to Vienna, where they stayed with relatives. Walter, who had been brought up as a Catholic, suddenly saw himself confronted with orthodox Jewish people of different customs. Increasing restrictions for Jews. Walter was enrolled in a program at the Vienna Jewish community to learn carpentry. Recollections of the terror of Kristallnacht. Walter and his brother Ludwig were signed up for a children transport to England by the Quaker organization and left Vienna in December 1938. Difficult feeling to depart from their parents. Arrival in Harwige. They were taken to a camp in Lowestoft. Cultural differences. Walter and his brother were sent to a training farm in Parbold. Simple living conditions and difficult circumstances. Farm work and school lessons. Outbreak of the war. Scarce news of their parents, who tried to leave for Argentina. Walter's older brother Ludwig was sent to an internment camp in Adelaide, Australia. After two years he volunteered in the Pioneer Corps and returned to England. In 1941 their parents finally managed to emigrate to Argentina. Walter decided to join them, and in 1943 he left for Buenos Aires. During the passage on the Atlantic the ship was sunk by a German submarine. Rescue by the US Army. Continuation of his trip via New York.
Abstract:
Internment at Ellis Island and release with the support of HIAS. Arrival in Buenos Aires in October 1943 and reunition with his parents. Work for a steel company and studies of mechanical engineering at the University of La Plata. Graduation in 1949. Military coup and political instability. Walter Altbach founded his own business, which became a successful enterprise. Marriage in 1951. Move to Peru in 1967. Recollections of his first trip to Austria after his emigration in 1968.
Note:
Synopsis in file
