An Austrian Refugee’s Drive to Create Art, 1938–39
Story and pictorial history of a year-long journey to the USA
By Elizabeth Kaldeck Smith
Learning about my family’s history
Many of the facts and details about my dad’s departure from Austria were unknown to me until I pored over the hundreds of pages of documents I found in my family’s home after he died.
My dad told us very little about what happened to him and almost nothing about his family-my grandparents and aunts. I wrote about this briefly in my first article on Medium, “Finding My Family’s Holocaust History.” After organizing documents and getting them translated, I was able to create a narrative-in- progress about much of what happened to my grandparents and aunts as well as my dad. I then donated the documents, the “Robert Kaldeck papers” to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018.
What I did know before he died I learned from my mother. She told me there were pictures in the house, but were hidden by my dad, even from her. “Your father says he can’t bear to look at those faces”. His parents, Moriz and Ella and sister Lizzy had been murdered in the Holocaust and the dates of death and location of their remains are not known. My dad felt so terrible that they died and that his and his sister Edith’s efforts to save them were unsuccessful.
From the documents left in the house, I learned that he obtained affidavits for his family. They were not accepted by the US State Department because the signers didn’t have enough money. He got two affidavits for Lizzy which were approved, but by then it was too late. Leaving Europe became more difficult and then impossible with the start of WWII.
Leaving Austria and the Gildemeester Emigrant Aid Organization
After the Anschluss (annexation of Austria to Germany) in March of 1938, my dad knew he had to leave Austria. Jews were losing their civil rights, their apartments were being looted, and assaults against them increased dramatically. Many wanted to leave as soon as possible. He sought help from the Gildemeester Emigrant Aid Organization in Vienna. This group was established in May of 1938 specifically for the purpose of assisting Jews in leaving Austria.
