Dora Schimanko

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Dora Schimanko as a speaker at the demonstration against the WKR-Ball 2012

Dora Schimanko (* 1932 in Vienna ) is a retired gardener , former emigrant , writer and contemporary witness .

life and work

Schimanko is the great-granddaughter of the businessman and imperial councilor Max Schiff and the niece of Karl Popper . Your family can look back on a long tradition of social and cultural commitment. Together with his wife Caroline Schiff, her great-grandfather organized meals for the poor, was a co-founder of the creditors' association and was active in the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna . Her grandfather, the statistician Walter Schiff , was involved in the Vienna Settlement Association , co-founded the first public secondary school for girls and initiated the shopping basket , which today - as a consumer price index - forms the basis for wage rounds and insurance adjustments. Her mother was a violinist and often gave house concerts .

Little Dora was a confident girl. When she was petted on the curly head when greeting her, she defended herself: “I am a person and not a lap dog that you petted without being asked.” Her grandfather did not reprimand her, but remarked: “It turned out well, a dog would have maybe bitten! ”The happy children's world of the 6-year-olds suddenly fell apart in 1938 when the whole family had to flee to England from the Nazis . “We could choose. In our case it would have made no difference whether they persecuted us as leftists or as Jews. ”Schimanko came to her grandfather in London at the age of six on a Kindertransport and was only able to return to Vienna in 1946. “When we returned home, we had nothing. We didn't get the expropriated apartment back. We were homeless. Help zero. ”Friends helped, Dora became a gardener. She was first involved in the Free Austrian Youth , which then included communists , socialists and Catholics , and later, like most of her close relatives, in the KPÖ .

In 2006 the Theodor Kramer Society published her book Why so and not different , which her extended family - the Schiffs - described. A number of members of this Jewish middle-class family played an important role in Vienna at the turn of the century and in the First Republic. The National Socialists murdered some family members and drove the others away. Schimanko is currently writing her second book, a novel about a democratic politician who is turning into a totalitarian ruler.

In 2014, she compared the police operation regarding the demonstration against the Akademikerball with the protests against the Schattendorfer judgment in 1927, which led to the fire of the Vienna Palace of Justice due to massive police intervention . She massively criticized those responsible for politics.

As a contemporary witness and activist

Schimanko has been active as a contemporary witness in schools, public events and the media for many years . She is committed - together with Konstantin Wecker and others - to the Racism-Free Zone project in Leopoldstadt and speaks out clearly against holding the Academic Ball in the Vienna Hofburg . Schimanko also campaigned against the construction of the public Augartenspitz by a private association. She spoke at two rallies for the platform Jetzt! on Heldenplatz in Vienna : 2012 on Holocaust Remembrance Day , 2015 at the protest rally against the Academic Ball .

Schimanko lives in the 2nd district of Vienna, Leopoldstadt .

Book publication

  • Why this way and no other way. Die Schiffs: A family is introduced , Vienna: Theodor Kramer Society 2006.

Web links

proof

  1. ↑ a b c Doris Kittler: Das Buch singt , review of the book by Dora Schimanko, accessed on December 14, 2014
  2. ^ Racism-free zone , accessed December 14, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Schimanko, Dora
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian survivor of the Nazi regime, gardener, author and contemporary witness
DATE OF BIRTH 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna