Far Away - Austrian Jews at the Rio de la Plata. Never Really Arrived?
Sprache des Vortragstitels:
Englisch
Original Tagungtitel:
Old World, New World: Jews in Transition
Sprache des Tagungstitel:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
The massive aggression against Jews in Central Europe in 1938 was already accompanied by violent attacks. Approximately 130,000 Jews were forced to leave Austria, which had become a part of Nazi Germany. The host countries Shanghai, Bolivia and Uruguay have to be mentioned explicitly. It was possible to immigrate to these destinations till late 1941. In Uruguay a few hundred Jews coming from Austria and Germany were arriving between 1939 and 1941. The address concentrates primarily on this group. As the large neighbor state Argentina played an important role for Austrian Jews in this area, some respective cases will be also included.
These refugees and emigrants experienced a double alienation, as an isolated group bound to Central European culture in a country like Uruguay (or Argentina). To give an example, a quote from an interview with a 90 year old Austrian shall be cited: ?My first son, born 1952, was named Stefan, after Stefan Zweig, the famous Austrian author. Stefan was born in Montevideo, but in our networks we spoke German?.My second son was named Thomas, after Thomas Mann.? Certainly the enormous geographical and cultural distances may partly explain the phenomenon. The group lived also in distance to the mainstream of the Jewish community in Montevideo.
The presentation focuses on the experiences of the small group of German speaking Jews in their new world, in Uruguay (and to a lesser extent in Argentina). It will thematize the groups placement in the society and it will follow the question, if this specific community embraced or resisted the transition. One interviewee described his experience in the new surrounding culture as ambivalent, using the term ?splendid isolation?. Several case studies of Austrian-Jewish emigrants are based on interviews and private material from the interviewees (photographs, documents) shall highlight the experience of the transition focussing on the topics self-identification, assimilation and integration.
Sprache der Kurzfassung:
Englisch
Englischer Vortragstitel:
Far Away - Austrian Jews at the Rio de la Plata. Never Really Arrived?
Forschungs-