AHC interview with Edith Matous.

Abstract

November 28, 20170:00:15-0:01:10 Growing up in Vienna0:01:11-0:09:42 Parental home0:09:44-0:10:46 Impact of the “Anschluss”0:10:48-0:11:14 The day Hitler marched in0:11:21-0:12:40 School and religion0:12:42-0:17:58 Being expelled from school0:18:00-0:23:04, 1:38:07-1:39:43 Recollections of Vienna during the war0:23:05-0:24:46 Constant fear of being caught0:24:47-0:29:50 Work in a dry cleaning plant0:29:51-0:31:41, 1:42:30-1:46:07 Encounters with Gestapo0:33:48-0:37:20 Mother’s occupation0:37:21-0:40:53, 1:46:09-1:47:00 Classification as ”Halbjuden” and examinations by “anthropologists”0:42:07-0:43:46 Nazi propaganda0:44:32-0:48:55 End of war and Russian occupation0:48:57-0:53:18 Nursing school and work at Allgemeines Krankenhaus0:53:22-0:55:43 Getting married and obtaining visas0:55:44-1:00:00 Emigration route1:00:00-1:08:43 Life in Canada1:08:44-1:13:00 Educational life and career1:13:07-1:21:25 Memories of family members1:23:13-1:24:24 Relations to Austria1:25:05-1:27:30 Neighborhood and friends in Vienna1:34:14-1:35:17 Recollections of “Kristallnacht”1:39:45-1:42:26 Anti-Semitism2:01:38-2:09:07, 2:11:40-2:13:30 Thoughts on Austrian society2:09:08-2:11:37 Visiting her former apartment in Vienna2:21:23-2:25:38 Final messageEdith Matous née Weiss was born on September 5, 1927 in Vienna, Austria. She grew up with her parents, Markus Weiss and Marie Augusta, née Coen Weiss and her older sister Anny, married Kainz in a small apartment in Apollogasse 12 in Vienna’s seventh district. Her father was Jewish and her mother had converted from Catholicism to Judaism. Edith’s father died in 1933. After the “Anschluss” her mother converted back to Catholicism and Edith and her sister were baptized in the Catholic Church. They were classified as “Halbjuden” under the Nuremberg laws. Edith attended elementary school and then was transferred to a secondary Hauptschule, reserved for “half-Jews”. After having finished Hauptschule in 1941, Edith was not allowed to learn a trade; she and her sister were assigned to work in a dry cleaning plant, where she worked until the end of the war. Edith and her sister tried to get their classification as “Halbjuden” changed to “Aryan”, and they underwent examinations by “anthropologists”. During the war Edith and her sister refused to wear their yellow badges, except when facing authority such as the Gestapo. Their lives consisted of constant apprehension about being “discovered” and fear of deportation. When the war was over, Edith attended nursing school in Lainz for three years. She then started working at Vienna’s main hospital, Allgemeines Krankenhaus. She got married to Hans Matous in January 1951, and they both obtained visas for Canada the same year. They left Austria in November 1951, taking the ship Saturnia from Genoa to Halifax. They lived in various cities in Canada, and Edith worked as a nurse. Edith got her bachelor and master’s degrees and taught nursing in Papua New Guinea. She settled in Victoria, British Columbia in 1969.Austrian Heritage Collectio