AHC interview with Edith Lowy.

Abstract

Part 1:0:00:19 - 0:05:05; 1:08:18-1:09:09 Growing up in Vienna before the "Anschluss"0:04:54-0:07:01; 1:17:17-1:19:07; 1:21:30-1:23:56; 2:08:32-2:10:29 Impacts of antisemitism after the "Anschluss"0:07:01-0:15:57; 1:28:42-1:29:27 Memories of her father and his deportation to Nisko in 19390:15:59-0:21:08; 1:29:30-1:31:34 Deportation to the concentration camp Theresienstadt in October 1942, arrival and conditions there0:21:10-0:22:40; 1:35:25-1:37:09 Deportation to the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944 and further to the concentration camp Stutthof0:22:44-0:27:27 Forced labor on a farm for harvest0:27:23-0:29:45 Getting back to Stutthof in winter 1945, forced to dig trenches0:29:46-0:34:34; 1:44:40-1:49:48 Death march in January 1945 and being sent to the Danzig-Burggraben concentration camp0:34:35-0:39:51 Memories of the Russians and the liberation0:39:52-0:46:03; 1:53:48-1:56:06; 2:07:16-2:08:31 Going back to Vienna and then to the DP camp in Deggendorf after the war0:46:07 -0:48:15; 2:11:20-2:19:01 Emigration process to the USA in May 19460:48:28-0:06:18; 0:59:43-1:02:26 Professional life of herself and her husband Louis Lowy in the USA0:56:19-0:59:43 Visits to Vienna1:02:43-1:06:30; 1:31:35-1:35:22 Memories of her grandparents Emanuel Jedlinsky (paternal grandfather) and Jeanette Rosalie Kempler (maternal grandmother), who survived Theresienstadt1:06:38-1:08:11 Father's and mother's professional life1:09:15-1:16:06 Role of religion1:19:32-1:21:29 Leo Baeck in Theresienstadt1:24:20-1:26:01 Kristallnacht and aftermath: a "gradual descent into hell"1:26:02-1:27:51; 1:37:11-1:38:28 Reflections on the way of coping with her own history1:38:33-1:43:56 Memories of her mother and the importance of staying together with her during the Holocaust1:49:52-1:51:58 Awareness of the Shoah1:55:05-2:03:12 Memories of her husband, Louis Lowy2:03:13-2:07:08 Visit to Theresienstadt2:19:01-2:21:35 Arriving in Boston2:21:39-2:25:50 First impressions of the United States2:25:51-2:32:35 Adjustment to the USA, citizenship and Austrian organizations2:32:46-2:34:06 Thoughts on Israel2:34:08-2:41:46 Connections to and thoughts about Austria2:41:51-2:43:45 Thoughts on memorial projects2:44:08-2:45:11 Thoughts on Donald Trump’s presidency---Follow-up interview with Anna Jungmayr:0:00:35-0:05:41 Performing 'Maria Stuart' by Friedrich Schiller in Theresienstadt0:05:41-0:11:59, 0:28:25-0:30:14 “Jugendheim” / illegal teaching0:13:41-0:17:11, 0:25:36-0:27:55 Myth of Theresienstadt0:17:07-0:20:44 Conditions in Theresienstadt0:20:47-0:25:36 Immediate post-war situation / displaced persons0:31:47-0:32:54 Edith Lowy’s drawings from Theresienstadt0:33:15-0:42:05 Working at the Window Shop in Cambridge, MAOctober 25, 2017 and January 16, 2018A book about Edith Lowy’s husband by Lorrie Greenhouse Gardella, The life and thought of Louis Lowy : social work through the Holocaust / Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 2011, is available in the YIVO Library, call number 000132073.Edith, née Jedlinsky Lowy was born on February 9th, 1926 in Vienna, Austria, where she grew up in the 9th district in an apartment together with her father Joseph Jedlinsky, her mother Hilda, née Kempler and her maternal grandmother Jeanette Rosalie Kempler. Her mother was a master dress maker who had learned her trade at the Wiener Werkstaette. Edith Lowy went to a Montessori Kindergarten, to elementary school and to gymnasium (high school) until 1938, when she had to change to a Jewish school. Her father was deported from Vienna with the first transport to the Nisko “reservation” on October 20th, 1939. After their apartment was confiscated, Edith Lowy, her mother and her grandmother moved to her mother’s sister’s place, also in the 9th district.After being forced to move one more time to another place in Vienna, the four of them were deported in October 1942 to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. There, Edith Lowy stayed in a section for young people and met her future husband, Louis Lowy. He secretly taught English to the young detainees in the building’s attic and acted out the Schiller-drama “Maria Stuart” with them. In May 1944 Edith and her mother were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and in August 1944 to Stutthof. From there they were sent to a farm, forced to work for the harvest. Her mother eventually had to sew for the owner of the farm. After being sent back to Stutthof, where the two of them had to dig trenches, they were sent on a death march in January 1945. When they were not able to walk further they were sent to the Danzig-Burggraben concentration camp, where they both got typhoid. Soon after that, the camp was liberated by the Russians. Edith Lowy and her mother were taken to Danzig on the 21st of March where they stayed until the war was over, on May 8th 1945.After the end of the war, Edith and her mother came back to Vienna via Bratislava, but left again soon to the DP camp in Deggendorf, which was directed by Louis Lowy, whom Edith married there in December 1945. He managed to get papers for many inmates to emigrate to Palestine and the USA. Edith Lowy immigrated with him in May 1946 via Hamburg to New York on a liberty ship. Her mother had already gone there, one ship ahead. Soon after their arrival they went to Boston to live with her mother’s sister in law. Edith Lowy got a job in a factory and then worked for a few stores in Boston, including “The Window Shop”. Later, she got a degree in social work. Her husband graduated from Harvard School of social work, and due to his work they travelled several times to Europe, visiting also Vienna and the former concentration camp Theresienstadt. They had two children. Louis Lowy died in 1991, Edith Lowy stayed in Boston after his death.Austrian Heritage Collectio