The English translation of Anna Helen (née Mahler) Aszkanazy’s unpublished memoir Meine Erinnerungen (My Recollections) by UBC CENES student Anuschka Elkei and Dr. Uma Kumar is now available for research and learning in open access format in the archive of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC).
Anna Helen (née Mahler) Aszkanazy, born in Vienna (November 9, 1893), was an eco-feminist and the driving force behind the Women’s Organisation for World Order (WOWO). The memoir details the author’s life in Vienna, her family, growing up in Viennese society, her marriage and children, the family business, her travels, friendships and advocacy work on behalf of women’s education, birth control and the rights of the stateless, and increasing antisemitism, fascism and Nazi terror.
Along with her teenage daughters – Leonore (Lore) (16) and Elizabeth (Lisl) (18) – Anna Helen (née Mahler) Aszkanazy fled Vienna to Switzerland the morning after the Nazis annexed Austria (Anschluss, March 12, 1938). She moved to Vancouver in 1939. Her husband ING. Simon Aszkanazy (born April 16, 1882), was murdered on March 18, 1938 by the Gestapo in the Police Detention Center, Vienna.
The memoir which was originally written in German will be published later this year in Austria by Danzig & Unfried.
Featured image: Courtesy of Uma Kumar
