AHC interview with Irene Etlinger.

Abstract

November 25, 20170:00:19-0:03:40 Growing up in Vienna0:03:41-0:06:45 Education in Vienna0:06:46-0:11:20 Religion0:11:21-0:16:01 Summers in Czechoslovakia and Carinthia0:16:02-0:17:55 Awareness of Nazism0:17:57-0:24:09 Café Eiles and the day when Hitler marched in0:24:14-0:27:50, 2:50:15-2:51:51 Father getting arrested0:27:51-0:30:23 Memories of her maid Poldi0:30:41-0:33:11 Receiving an affidavit from the Pallays family0:33:13-0:36:13 Obtaining papers0:36:14-0:44:17 Living with Simon Levi in London0:44:17-0:49:22 Living with the Nathans family0:49:23-0:52:41 Moving to a farm in Somerset0:52:42-1:00:51 Emigration route to New York1:00:51-1:07:17, 2:58:10-2:59:31 Ellis Island1:07:17-1:16:02 From Ellis Island to Portland1:16:03-1:23:11 Living with the Pallays and going to high school1:23:53-1:27:35 College and first job1:27:35-1:31:35 Getting married and family life1:31:36-1:42:00 What happened to the family in Vienna1:42:10-2:07:13 Life with parents in Portland2:07:17-2:13:35 Career and life in the US2:13:50-2:16:35 Grandmother Rosi Reiner née Barth2:19:57-2:31:40 Religion2:32:02-2:48:11 How spare time in Vienna was spent2:48:14-2:50:11 Parents’ reaction to the Nazis rise to power2:51:52-2:53:29 Recollections of “Kristallnacht”2:53:33-2:56:32 Keeping in touch with parents2:56:35-2:58:08 Enemy alien status in England3:00:10-3:12:38 Love-hate relationship to Vienna3:14:40-3:16:22 Austria’s dealing with its NS-past3:16:23-3:19:50 Opinion on world politics3:22:34-3:26:45 How war shaped life and identity3:26:47-3:28:20 Final messageIrene Etlinger née Reiner was born on September 8, 1922 in Vienna, Austria. She grew up as an only child with her parents, Hugo Reiner and Ludmilla, née Jakubec Reiner and a maid in an apartment in Taborstrasse 25 in Vienna’s second district. She attended elementary school in Johannesgasse in the first district, and in 1932 the family moved to a new apartment in Blechturmgasse 7 in Vienna’s fifth district. Irene went to the school of the women’s organization Frauenerwerbsverein for four years and then transferred to Handelsakademie for two years until Hitler marched in. Soon after the “Anschluss” her father and uncle, who owned a business together, were accused of improper bookkeeping and tax evasion and were arrested for two days. The family had to leave their home and moved to a place in Aegidigasse in the fourth district. Through an uncle of a schoolmate, Irene received an affidavit from the Pallays family in Portland, Oregon in August 1938. On December 9, 1938, she left by airplane via Prague and Rotterdam for London to wait for her US quota number, staying with the Pallays’ distant cousin, Simon Levi. She did not get to the US until one year later, when she took a ship from Liverpool to New York via Halifax and arrived on Ellis Island in New York on January 3, 1940. She was let out in New York within a day, stayed with relatives of the Pallays in Brooklyn for three weeks and then took a bus to Portland, Oregon. Irene went to Lincoln High School for a year and then to a business college. She stayed with the Pallays until she got married to Harry Etlinger in 1944. Irene’s parents came to Portland in 1947 and stayed with Irene, her husband and her two children.Austrian Heritage Collectio