Otto Abeles

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Otto Abeles (born May 1, 1879 in Rohatetz near Nikolsburg , Moravia, Austria-Hungary ; † May 25, 1945 in Tröbnitz , Saxony) was an Austrian journalist , writer , music critic and Zionist .

Life

Otto Abeles, son of Siegmund and Rosa, b. Schrager, visited Vienna in high school and then the University of Vienna , where he studied law and in 1905 Dr. iur. received his doctorate. Already during his studies Abeles founded the first Zionist student organization "Veritas" together with Robert Stricker , Berthold Feiwel and his brother-in-law Hermann Kadisch , since he had to experience "daily bitterness and humiliation, desolate loneliness" of the Jew while he was still at school .

“Since then I have witnessed the development of the Zionist movement, the good and the bad days. From Herzl's Faustian beginning to liberate Jewry from its unworthy position with a mighty grip - the great mass of those transplanted to Palestine in fact to morally redeem those who remained - to today's hopeful, glorious, but in comparison to the original, utopian Program of the political Zionists modest possibilities of conscious Jewish settlement work in the old Jewish land. "

Until 1928 he worked as a lawyer for the Austrian Federal Railways . In addition, he campaigned for the Zionist idea as an editor and journalist and was a co-founder of numerous committees in Bohemia and Moravia. He also supported the movement through his lectures and journalistic work in Jewish newspapers, especially in the first Zionist daily newspaper in German, the "Wiener Morgenzeitung", founded by him and Robert Stricker in 1919. On the occasion of the forthcoming election of the constituent national assembly on February 16, Abeles called in the first edition of the new newspaper in favor of the "Jewish National Association for German Austria":

“Only a Jew who enters parliament as a representative of his people has the strength and the freedom to stand up for real equality for Jews”.

After this newspaper was discontinued on September 16, 1927, he continued to work in the follow-up newspaper “Die Neue Welt”, but, as before, published his work in the “ Jüdische Rundschau ”, the “ Selbstwehr ”, the “ Jüdische Volksstimme ”, in the “ Neues Wiener Journal ”and other papers. From the mid-1920s he toured Transylvania , Hungary , Eastern Galicia , Luxembourg and Czechoslovakia as a delegate of the Keren Hajessod .

Abeles moved to the Netherlands in early September 1934 and became one of the most ardent and courageous members of the Amsterdam Jewish community, he was also the director of the Dutch branch of Keren Hajessod. After the invasion of the German troops during the Second World War , Abeles was also captured and interned in the Westerbork transit camp. In May 1944 he was further deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He died of typhus infection a little more than a month after he was liberated from the concentration camp .

With his wife Mina (née Dembitzer; marriage on November 15, 1908 in Vienna) he had a son Benjamin (1909 in Vienna -? In Jerusalem), who worked as a doctor in Israel.

Partial estates are in Jerusalem, namely in the Zionist Central Archives, the Archives of Keren Hajessod, the Nathan Birnbaum Archives and the Jewish National and University Library .

The revocation of the doctoral degree by the National Socialists in 1941 was reversed by a resolution of the Senate of the University of Vienna on April 10, 2003.

Works

Book publications

Book title
  • Jewish refugees. Scenes and figures . Löwit publishing house, Vienna 1918.
Contains short prose pieces with descriptions of the lives of Jewish refugees from Galicia during the First World War.
  • The recovery . Poems. Löwit publishing house, Vienna 1920.
Contains poetry with Jewish themes, including grave inscription for Theodor Herzl .
  • Visit to Erez Israel . Löwit publishing house, Vienna 1926.
In addition to an important autobiographical introduction, it contains the wish to implement the Zionist idea so that "my son no longer has to stand between two worlds, that a bright and happy path into the Jewish community is shown [and] paved for him".
  • Ten Jewish women. Morals and stories from the lives of Jewish women . Max Präger Verlag, Vienna 1931.
The book for girls from the age of thirteen contains historical anecdotes and stories in which the author uses letters, notes and documents to describe the lives of ten Jewish women, such as Glückel von Hameln , La Fanny , On the Deathbed by Rahel Levin .
  • Encounters with Jews . Löwit publishing house, Vienna 1936.

Other publications

In addition to his countless journalistic work, Abeles also wrote forewords and worked as an editor, including for these works:

  • Jewish folk calendar for the year 5665 (1904/05) . Jewish book and art publishing house, Brno 1904.
  • Jewish national calendar . Edited together with Ludwig Bató . There were three volumes:
    • 5676 (1915/16). Löwit Verlag, Vienna 1915.
      Contains in the foreword a treatise on the cultural question in Zionism after Herzl's death.
    • 5677 (1916/17). Verlag Jüdische Zeitung, Vienna 1916.
    • 5678 (1917/18). Verlag Jüdische Zeitung, Vienna 1917.
  • Hugo Zuckermann : Poems . Ed .: Otto Abeles. Löwit Verlag, Vienna 1915.
    Contains in the foreword an appreciation and short biography of his friend Hugo Zuckermann.

Reviews

  • Visit to Erez Israel :

“Otto Abeles proudly and rightly counts himself among those men of the Zionist organization who have been linked to its origins and becoming for years and represent the“ old guard ”. This is how the bond with the suffering and joy of the Jewish settlement in Erez Yisrael, which has become a bond of the heart, naturally sounds from the pages of this diary. This personal warmth, the slight regret - just a 'visit' - gives the simple descriptions, the unpretentious reproduction of impressions and the conversations the intimate charm that some Palestinian travelogues of well-known writers have to do without. Every word here speaks of the fate of the Zionist ideal, the struggle to return to the Jewish people, the bitter fate of the first pioneers, the first Chaluzim and the relentless hope and effort of a longing, unnamed crowd to make the 'fairy tale' a reality . Beyond the party-like attitude, these lively sheets, written with the passion of the strict and loving father, are worth reading, which give an idea of ​​a noble soul of 'the unknown soldier' ​​in the struggle for the new country. "

  • Ten Jewish women

"The role that the Jewish woman played in the centuries-long history of Jewish suffering in the Galuth was given less attention." [… The author] “tries to use letters, chronistic records and official decrees, etc. to record the lives of ten Jewish women’s fates, which are typical for the attitude of Jewish women in the context of the regional kahal . [...] The Jewish women from Vienna, Prague, Krakow, Eisenstadt, and Nikolsburg are examples of absolute Jewish heroism. [...] The book, written with feuilletonistic verve, is worth reading for the sake of the material alone. "

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Abeles: Visit to Erez Israel . Löwit, Vienna 1926, p. 3.
  2. ↑ Otto Abeles: Visit to Erez Israel . Löwit, Vienna 1926, p. 3f.
  3. ^ Wiener Morgenzeitung from January 19, 1919, p. 3.
  4. ^ Senate resolution of the University of Vienna of April 10, 2003, with which the 1941 withdrawal of the doctorate by the National Socialists was reversed. (PDF file; 128 kB)
  5. ↑ Otto Abeles: Visit to Erez Israel . Löwit, Vienna 1926, p. 4.
  6. ^ NH (d. I. Norbert Hoffmann) in: "Menorah", 1926, issue 5, p. 309.
  7. ↑ r. in: "The New World" of March 27, 1931, p. 5.
personal data
SURNAME Abeles, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian journalist, writer, music critic and Zionist
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Rohatetz near Nikolsburg , Moravia
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1945
Place of death Tröbnitz , Saxony