Gertrude Schneider

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Gertrude Schneider (born on 27. May 1928 in Vienna as Gertrude Hirschhorn ) is an Austrian historian , journalist and retired high school teacher of the City College of New York . She survived the Holocaust in the Kaiserwald and Stutthof concentration camps and in the Riga ghetto .

Career

Gertrude Schneider is the daughter of Pinkas Hirschhorn and Charlotte Hirschhorn, née Le Winter. The Hirschhorn store, which they ran in Vienna's Felberstrasse, was demolished immediately after Austria was annexed to the Nazi dictatorship . Schneider was expelled from school and could only attend schools approved for Jewish students. Together with her parents and her sister, who was two years younger, she was deported from Vienna to Riga in February 1942 at the age of thirteen. At the beginning of November 1943 the family was taken to the Kaiserwald concentration camp , in August 1944 the National Socialists took the family across the Baltic Sea to Danzig and from there to the Stutthof concentration camp ; Schneider's father was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp . Schneider precisely documented the cruel circumstances of life in the ghetto and concentration camp in her diary. When she returned to Vienna with her sister and mother in June 1945, Schneider learned of the murder of her father the day before the liberation in Buchenwald concentration camp. The death of their father and the negative attitude of many Austrians towards Jewish returnees motivated the family to emigrate to the USA in 1947.

Schneider met her husband in New York and had a daughter (1954) and two sons (1953 and 1960) with him. In addition to family and bookkeeping in her husband's company, Schneider completed her high school diploma at evening schools. At the City College of New York , she joined in 1970 a study of mathematics as a BS with magna cum laude , and in 1972 with the MS from. She enrolled in Modern and Medieval History at the CUNY Graduate Center and received her doctorate in 1973 with her dissertation “The Riga Ghetto, 1941–1944”.

From 1972 to 1977 Schneider was a guest lecturer in adult education at the Theodor Herzl Institute in New York. She dealt with the various aspects of the Holocaust in a series of lectures, including for teachers. Between 1970 and 1980 Schneider was an assistant , later an associate professor and supervisor of student teachers and field work counselor at the City College of New York . She supervised graduate students, advised students on possible academic programs and was a supervisor of student teachers in the public school system. Her lectures included the history and philosophy of education, school in American society, psychology of learning, and statistics for teachers. The National Science Foundation project was established by Schneider for the professional preparation of math and science teachers.

At Fordham University , Schneider taught from 1975 to 1980 as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Excel Department of History of Science and Mathematics . At the CUNY Graduate Center, Schneider was the coordinator of non-academic work from 1980 to 1982. She founded and directed the Graduate Center Business Seminar and held computer seminars for students and graduates.

From 1982 onwards, Schneider was in charge of CUNY's PR agendas and career advice for students and graduates, initially as Assistant Placement Director and from 1985 to 1995 as Associate Placement Director. From 1974 on, Schneider was a member of the Board of Directors of the “Ph.D. Alumni Association of CUNY ”, from 1983 she served as its president for 26 years.

Journalism

In addition to teaching history of science, Schneider worked as a historian on the Shoah ; in particular the topics of survival and resistance of Jews in concentration camps , the ghetto seen through the eyes of a child, the survival of women in the Holocaust, the Riga ghetto and the Kaiserwald concentration camp, the Holocaust in Latvia , the fate of the Jews in Germany under Hitler , the The fate of the Austrian Jews 1938–1945 , the return of surviving Jews in 1945 and the question of how the phenomenon of the Holocaust can be taught in high schools . In 2013 she donated her library to the Wolfgang Suwelack Foundation in Billerbeck ; the 848 books have since been housed in the Villa ten Hompel .

From October 1995, Schneider was editor-in-chief of the German-language exile newspaper Aufbau for a year . From 1984 to 1998 she was the editor of the Jewish Latvian Kurier .

Schneider also worked for films and television shows. In 1986 she sang a Yiddish ghetto song from Riga in Claude Lanzmann's film “ Shoa ”. In the film “Riga. A tale of two ghettos ”for the United States Holocaust Commission , she appeared both as a survivor and as a specialist for the Riga ghetto. She also appeared in the television programs " 60 Minutes ", "Midday Life", "News", "Crime Watch", "Jewish Spectrum" and "Eye on New York". In 1997 she reported on the " History Channel " about the life and deeds of Adolf Eichmann and proved that Hitler and Eichmann had the same history teacher. As part of a commemorative event in May 2017 in the historic meeting room of the Vienna parliament building, Schneider gave the commemorative speech in front of the National Council and the Federal Council .

Fonts (selection)

Awards

literature

  • Brigitta Keintzel, Ilse Korotin (Hrsg.): Scientists in and from Austria: Life - work - work . Vienna: Böhlau, 2002 ISBN 3-205-99467-1 , pp. 662–664

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marie-Theres Egyed, Peter Mayr: Shoah survivor Gertrude Schneider: “The rabble is easy to get excited”. In: The Standard . May 8, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c d Brigitta Keintzel, Ilse Korotin (ed.): Scientists in and from Austria: Life - work - work. Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2002, ISBN 9783205994671 , pp. 662–664, limited preview .
  3. ↑ a b Program booklet Remembrance Day 2017. In: Bundesrat . May 7, 2017.
  4. ^ Author profile Gertrude Schneider. In: Laumann Verlag.
  5. ↑ Karin Völker: Your books speak. In: Westfälische Nachrichten . February 27, 2013.
  6. ↑ Alumni Notes. ( Memento of November 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: CUNY Graduate Center . June 29, 2006.
  7. ^ Herbert Exenberger : Communications. In: DÖW . Volume 180, March 2007, pp. 10-11.
personal data
SURNAME Schneider, Gertrude
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hirschhorn, Gertrude (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian historian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna