When I talk about my parents' forced departure from Vienna, I generally focus on the tragic outcome: the death of almost all their immediate family members, except for my father's brother, Fritz. On this Father's Day, I'd like to focus on the bravery -- combined with what must have been ingenuity and a bit of luck -- that got Paul Jarolim to America from Nazi-occupied
Austrian history
The Jarolim Family: My Uncle Fritz & Military Resistance
When it comes to my mother's family, the topic of military service is fraught. I've written before about the fact that my grandfather Herman Rosenbaum served in World War I but was not rewarded for his service by such basic decency as not being deported from Austria and sent to his death. I've also written about how I disliked the idea of my family members as victims. It
Jewish Immigration, Part 2: Sponsorship & Family Rifts
This is Day 9 of the Family History Writing Challenge, 2018. In yesterday's post, I described the restrictions against immigrants, especially Jews, coming to the U.S. from Nazi Austria (an accurate term, I decided, for a country that welcomed Hitler and that was instrumental to putting his Final Solution into place--claims of being occupied notwithstanding). Adolph
Jewish Immigration, Part 1: Quotas & Suspicion
This is Day 8 of the Family History Writing Challenge, 2018 One of the key sources of information I have about Bertha and Adolph Schweitzer is the form they filled out in an attempt to leave Vienna. While I gather information on and interpret this document in the search for the identities of my great aunt and uncle, I'm going to take a brief digression into the general
Samuel Singer’s Military Service
This is Day 6 in the Family History Writing Challenge. I tend to be irreverent in my family history discussions -- both because I tend to be irreverent about everything and if I didn't laugh about certain topics, I would cry. This last was the case with the discussion of Samuel Singer's military service (or potential therefore) in the last post. Other Members of My Family
The Jewish Museum Vienna: A Personal Look
I know, you can’t go home again, especially if home is a country your family was forced to flee. I was under no illusion that a lilting Strauss waltz would be the soundtrack to my visit to Vienna, where both my parents were born. Still, I’d traveled to the city earlier this summer to see how my relatives had lived, not to dwell on their victimization. Which is why I was looking
Of Genealogies and Possibilities: A New Year’s Musing
Happy 2015. It's that time of year when all the possibilities seem to open up. January 1 is an arbitrary date, of course, but who doesn't want to believe in fresh starts, in learning from our experiences, even if those experiences sometimes seem arbitrary too? I ended last year on a sad note, with the accidental death of a friend, Jean, who had become very important to me
Karl Lueger vs Sigmund Freud: A Disturbing Contrast in Vienna’s Legacies
For most of my week in Vienna, my experience of the city was so positive as to be a bit surreal. I remembered Vienna from the early 1970s -- the only time I'd visited before -- as being gloomy and dour. I also imagined that, given what I'd learned over the last few years about my family's history, I would be coping with a lot of difficult emotions. Not so. The
Dueling Desserts, Plaster Poets, & Sigmund Freud: Vienna’s Cafe Culture
I've touched on the fact that my family members dabbled in sweets as well as meats in my last two posts, which involved my cousin Curt Allina, who lived across the street from Sigmund Freud and who later put the heads on PEZ. But the Kornmehl family also had a direct connection with a quintessentially Viennese concern: Coffeehouses. (For some background, see From Meat to
More Amazing Austrian Inventions! PEZ & Freud, Revisited
Mea culpa. In my last post, I talked about my cousin Curt Allina, who lived across the street from Freud when he was a boy and who has been credited with putting the heads on the PEZ dispensers. It was subsequently pointed out to me that, in the context of that discussion, I mistakenly identified the following item as a packet of PEZ, the kind that is put into PEZ dispensers
Cemetery Schlepping in Vienna: A Shaggy Deer Story
I like cemeteries, especially big sprawling ones with famous people buried in them. It's always interesting to see different forms of remembrance and, for the most part, they are quiet, park-like places to stroll and contemplate mortality. Or dinner. Having visited Karl Marx and George Eliot in London's Highgate, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison in Pere Lachaise
The Harmonie Vienna: Seven Reasons It’s My Dream Hotel
I just got word of where I'll be bunking during my upcoming trip to Austria, thanks to the Vienna Tourist Board: The Harmonie Vienna. As a travel writer, I've been fortunate enough to stay in some of the world's top hotels and resorts. But I can't recall a place that was a better fit for me, personally, since...well, ever. Here's why. 1. Location, Location,
Who Put the Heads on Pez? My Cousin Curt!
One of my cousins is a pop culture icon. Or at least the source of one. Many members of the Kornmehl family have been successful. We've got doctors, lawyers, scientists, bankers, and writers in the clan, as well as a famous (on the East Coast) chocolatier. But, as far as public recognition is concerned, no one holds a candle to Curt Allina. You may not know his name but you
19 Berggasse: A Twice-Famed Address
I've mentioned many times that this blog is a cousin magnet. I don't even have to try to attract relatives; they just gravitate towards the Kornmehl name. This is a wonderful thing, especially when I've been too busy to blog and I can entice one of the cousins to write a guest post. A brief note. You'll be hearing more soon about Lary Ecker, my third cousin once removed
Vienna’s Famous Foreskins
Last week I visited Manhattan's Leo Baeck Institute, known for its excellent collections of materials relating to Europe's German-speaking Jewish communities. I was hoping to shed some light on the everyday lives of the Kornmehl family in Vienna. I had a limited amount of time and, unsure where to start looking, I browsed the listings of microfiche documents that weren't