AHC interview with Elizabeth Simons.

Abstract

January 18, 20180:00:13-0:04:06, 1:41:33-1:44:50 - Childhood in Hietzing0:04:07-0:10:11 - Impacts of the “Anschluss”0:10:13-0:12:43 - Escape to France0:12:46-0:16:19 - Beginning of the war / split of the family0:16:20-0:19:37 - Fred Engle’s escape from the internment camp in Brittany0:19:37-0:26:00 - Escape to and conditions in Nice0:26:01-0:30:53, 2:12:35-2:13:57 - Crossing the Pyrenees and going to Portugal0:30:53-0:33:27, 2:18:22-2:20:59 - Emigration and arrival in the USA0:33:30-0:40:20 - School years in the USA0:40:27-0:47:26 - Pratt Institute at Cooper Union0:47:28-0:49:49, 2:31:33-2:40:35 - Difficulties for women in science0:49:50-0:53:43 - Further education at Yale’s chemical department0:53:51-1:03:39 - Start of her professional career1:03:54-1:09:58 - Working at Harvard Medical School and settling down1:10:01-1:18:37 - Boston University School of Medicine1:18:38-1:27:14 - Retirement and further activities1:28:40-1:31:02, 2:14:30-2:17:48 - Family history1:33:13-1:36:25 - Relationship to maternal grandparents1:36:27-1:38:30 - Escapes and deportations of family members1:44:50-1:46:50 - Mother Erna Engle-Weisselberg1:44:50-1:48:53 - Languages spoken and travelling1:48:53-2:02:29 - Visits to and attitude towards Austria; failed restitution2:02:30-2:05:10 - Anti-Semitism in the United States2:05:16-2:10:01 - Religion2:21:01-2:28:31 - Relationship to her sister Ruth Cordero2:28:32-2:31:29 - Political events during and after WW II2:41:19-2:45:23 - IsraelElizabeth Simons, née Reiman was born in 1929 and raised in Vienna’s district of Hietzing, where she lived together with her mother Erna Engle-Weisselberg (born 1901), her stepfather Fred Engle (born in 1906), her older sister Ruth (married Cordero) and her maternal grandparents Betti (née Munz) and Bernard Weisselberg, who owned a lumber business. They also had a maid called “Annerl”. Elizabeth’s biological father, William Reiman had died in 1930.Elizabeth’s mother was a pianist and studied chemistry at the University of Vienna. Her stepfather was working for an antifascist newspaper in Vienna: he left the city in the night of the “Anschluss”, skiing to Switzerland. Elizabeth and her sister were taken out of school and transfered to a Jewish school. In June of 1938 they left Vienna together with their mother and went to France via Luxemburg, Holland and Belgium. They reunited with Fred Engle and stayed in Chelles, a town in the wider area of Paris, where Elizabeth went to school. Her stepfather was sent to a French internment camp in Brittany shortly after the war had started on September 1, 1939. After the German occupation of Paris in June 1940, the family left for Nice where they reunited again with Elizabeth’s stepfather who had managed to escape from the internment camp, which made it impossible for him to leave France legally. At the beginning of 1941 the family left to Perpignan (France), from where they crossed the Pyrenees to Spain and went further to Lisbon (Portugal). On May, 31, 1941 they left on a ship to Norfolk, VA, where they arrived on June 15. The family settled in Elmhurst, Queens (New York), where Elizabeth went to school. In 1946 she went to the Pratt Institute of Cooper Union and then to graduate school at Yale’s chemical department from where she graduated in 1953 with a PhD. She had several positions in teaching and researching on physical chemistry and later on biochemistry at the Boston University School of Medicine from where she retired in 2012. She married Harold Lee Simons and they had two children and five grandchildren. Elizabeth Simons settled in Massachusetts.Austrian Heritage Collectio