Description
Book SynopsisRemarkable story recounting the author's 18-year search for the truth of what happened to her mother's Viennese Jewish family during the Second World War. She also digs deep into her family's history, a journey which took her back 200 years and across four continents, and explores the impact that these events had on subsequent generations.
Trade Review"In this remarkable book, Susan... was able to give names to the nameless, faces to the faceless - and restore the wholeness of a family the Nazis had intended to destroy.... It restores life where there was death, presence where there was absence, roots where identity was lost, hope where there was despair." Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the Shoah Foundation Institute, writing in his Foreword to the book.
Table of ContentsFamily Tree: The Descendants of Josef and Cacilie Smetana; Foreword By Stephen D. Smith Mbe; Preface; Chapter 1: A JOURNEY IN TIME: THE SEARCH BEGINS; Chapter 2: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION; My mother's immediate family; The Smetana Family; The Weinberger Family; Chapter 3: AUNTS, UNCLES AND COUSINS A WORLD AWAY; The Family of Otto Smetana; The Steininger Family; The Family of Karl Smetana; Chapter 4: JOSEF SMETANA'S ANCESTRY: AN INNKEEPER'S SON OR SON OF A COMPOSER? Was Josef Smetana related to the composer? The Smetany/Smetana Family of Ungarisch Brod; Reflections on ancestral bonds; Chapter 5: THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA; Chapter 6: THE NAZI MACHINE IN AUSTRIA; Introduction; Nazi Germany and the Anschluss; The process of Aryanisation in Austria; The estate of Fritz Smetana; Forms and standard letters used during Aryanisation; Offices, departments and organisations dealing with Jewish matters; Officials involved; Other terms and phrases associated with the Nazi era; Extracts of Nazi correspondence; Chapter 7: THE LIFE AND FATE OF JOSEF AND CACILIE SMETANA; Building a new life: family and business; The fate of Josef and Cacilie under the Nazis; Fitting memorials; Chapter 8: THE TRAGIC LIFE OF FRITZ SMETANA; Promising beginnings; Commemoration in San Marino; A lonely end; Chapter 9: IN SEARCH OF BERTA SMETANA; The Weinbergers; Berta: who was she? Flight from Vienna; "Tante Berthe was a good woman"; Le Devoir de Memoire; Chapter 10: MY MOTHER'S LIFE IN VIENNA (1919-1938); Childhood in Hietzing; Growing up in central Vienna; Escape to England; Chapter 11: MY MOTHER'S LIFE IN ENGLAND: LIVES ENTWINED; Early days; An unusual family life; A return to roots; Chapter 12: A LIFE OF MY OWN? Chapter 13: END OF AN ERA; Post-Script: Butterflies and Other Coincidences; Appendices 1 to 14: Translation Of Documents; Appendix 15: A NOTE ON CZECH JEWISH GENEALOGY; Jewish Vital Records in Bohemia and Moravia; The Czech Memorial Scrolls; List Of Illustrations; Bibliography; Sources, Credits And Acknowledgements.
