ESCAPE - ARYANISATION - RESTITUTION: TWO FAMILY STORIES

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Gerhard Baumgartner, Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider, Peter Weinberger

ESCAPE - ARYANISATION - RESTITUTION: TWO FAMILY STORIES

Gerhard Baumgartner and Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider from the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance present in conversation with author Peter Weinberger:

„Josef Frank's Herzberg Villa as reflected in the Aryanisation and restitution of Bunzl & Biach“
by Ruth Jolanda and Peter Weinberger, with a foreword by Gerhard Baumgartner, Scientific Director of the DÖW

The history of the Herzberg Villa, the director's residence of the Bunzl & Biach paper factory in Neusiedl-Waidmannsfeld, Lower Austria, built by architect Josef Frank, is part of the history of the Aryanisation of Bunzl & Biach AG. The company was expropriated by the National Socialists in 1938 and the Bunzl family was able to flee to Great Britain. After 1945, restitution was extremely hesitant. Viktor Bunzl was the only member of the Bunzl family to return to Austria after 1945. After the final sale of Bunzl & Biach, he acquired the Herzberg villa, which had previously been part of the factory property.

In "Josef Frank's Herzberg-Villa im Spiegel der Arisierung und Restitution von Bunzl & Biach", Ruth Jolanda Weinberger and Peter Weinberger retrace the company history of one of the most important Austrian corporations for the first time and trace the Bunzl family against the backdrop of robbery and persecution during the Nazi era. (Verlag Österreichisches Literaturforum, 2021, ISBN 978-3-902760-17-3)

„Six sisters on the run from the National Socialists“
By Ruth Jolanda and Peter Weinberger

The volume „Six sisters on the run from the National Socialists“ is a kind of „contemporary history picture book“. One of them was Dina Bunzl, née Engelberg, the mother-in-law of Peter Weinberger. Numerous original documents and letters are used to trace the fate of the six Engelberg sisters during the Nazi era. One sister was murdered in Maly Trostinec in 1942, five sisters managed to emigrate in very different ways. Two sisters were able to flee to the USA and two to England. One sister tried to flee to Palestine and was interned for 4 ½ years on the island of Mauritius under the British Mandate.

The book traces the history of the six sisters in the context of persecution, flight and murder by the National Socialists and is enriched with numerous documents and photos from the family estate. (Verlag Österreichisches Literaturforum, 2021, ISBN 978-3-902760-18-0)

Peter Weinberger was a professor at the Vienna University of Technology until 2008 and at New York University until 2015. He wrote both books in collaboration with his daughter Ruth Jolanda Weinberger who works as a historian at the Claims Conference in New York.

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In co-operation with the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance