Description
Object description
Austrian Jewish student at University of Vienna and assistant to Ernst Kris, Keeper of Decorative Arts at Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria, 1/1933-1/1936; research assistant with Warburg Institute, University of London in GB, 1/1936-11/1939; worked for British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service in Evesham and Caversham, GB, 11/1939-11/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as student with University of Vienna and assistant to Ernst Kris, Keeper of Decorative Arts at Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria, 1/1933-1/1936: anti-Semitism at University of Vienna; reaction of teaching staff towards witnessing anti-Semitism; belief of populace that Adolf Hitler would not last; attitude towards crowds; being urged to leave Vienna by Ernst Kris; receiving job offer with Warburg Institute in GB, 1935; question of Austrian middle classes attitude towards Anschluss; assimilation of middle class Jews into Austrian society and their attitude towards Eastern European Jews. Aspects of period as research assistant with Warburg Institute, University of London in GB, 1/1936-11/1939: pay; accommodation and life in London; parent's emigration to London, 1938.
REEL 2 Continues: reasons for parent's decision to move to GB, 1938; parent's employment in GB; reaction of certain professions to influx of Jewish refugees; background to move of Warburg Institute from Hamburg, Germany to London, GB, 1933; mixing with refugees and initial difficulties with English language; anticipation of coming war; opinion of British attitudes during Second World War; outbreak of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of period with British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service in Evesham and Caversham, GB, 11/1939-11/1945: joining monitoring service, 11/1939; work for monitoring service; exemption from internment; father's internment at Huyton Internment Camp, Huyton, 6/1940-8/1940; lack of hostility shown to him as Austrlan refugee; British morale and his fear of invasion; awareness of good fortune.
REEL 3 Continues: Reflections on refugee experience: father and sister's difficulties as lawyers in GB; view of refugee employment; return to Warburg Institute at end of Second World War; attitude towards Austria and Austrians; sense of still feeling a refugee; awareness of coming war and belief that he wouldn't survive, 1939; opinion of Austria.