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Beth Strasser: Okay. Can you give me your full name?
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Frank Buchwald: Frank Buchwald, B-U-C-H-W-A-L-D.
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Strasser: And your age and birthday?
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Buchwald: Born June 3rd, 1904. So, I'm almost 72.
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Strasser: And your place of birth?
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Buchwald: Vienna, Austria.
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Strasser: And the maiden name of your mother?
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Buchwald: Herlinger. H-E-R-L-I-N-G-E-R.
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Strasser: And were there any name changes in your move from Vienna to
America?
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Buchwald: Only I changed my first name to Frank. I was born France.
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Strasser: And can you tell me any other name changes? Well, the maiden
name of your grandmothers. Do you know that?
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Buchwald: Friedanfeld. Friedanfeld.
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Strasser: Maternal grandmother.
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Buchwald: Is my maternal grandmother. Friedanfeld they come. My both
grandparents, father's and mother's side lived-- they are born in
Czechoslovakia and moved in probably their 20s to Vienna, which was the
capital of Austria and Bohemia. Slovakia, where they lived, was part of the
Austrian monarchy. So they just moved to the capital city.
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Strasser: For your maternal grandmother's name, that's
F-R-I-E-D-E-N-F-E-L-D? Yes. Yeah. And do you know where in Czechoslovakia
they came from?
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Buchwald: My father was--- you want my mother's side. Father was born in
Popudin. Popudin. The way you say P-O-P-U-D-I-N. Funny that I remember
that. [laughs] And my mother was born in Senica. S-E-N-I-C-A. Both are in
Slovakia.
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Strasser: Okay.
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Strasser: Um. What languages do you speak and understand?
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Buchwald: I--in Vienna. Only German is spoken, of course. Just like my
parents and grandparents came to Vienna. So thousands and thousands from
all over the monarchy came to Vienna to live in the capital, to work in the
capital, because there was more work-- The provinces were very poor and
people flocked by the thousands to, I think Vienna around I would say 100
years ago, doubled in in population. They had a big program of of making
the city big. It was around the time when Emperor Franz Joseph-- I wasn't
born there, but I'm very much interested in history. And the emperor had
his 60th-- um, he was born in 1870-- his 60th birthday and at the same
time, he was his 40s or 50s year of rule as emperor, he came to the throne
at 18. And in 1848, the year of the European Revolution of the Civil Rights
Revolution. And. He and at that time Vienna. Was made a big city. It was it
really consisted out of probably 50 villages and townships and so on before
that. And the-- it was the inner city was surrounded by a wall where you
had to-- my mother still remembered and my mother is born 1870. My mother
still remembered the time when to come from the outer city, from the outer
villages into the city, people had to pay dues for meat, eggs, for whatever
they sold in town. But all this fell and Vienna, when the when the walls
were scrapped and there was made this famous ringstrasse in Vienna, which
is which is a very walls and moats and all it is now a big ring around the
inner city, but it is part of the city and its beautiful buildings are
there. So this is the town.
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Strasser: And what part of Vienna did you grow up in? Was it the inner?
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Buchwald: Half and half-- none, less than half. I was born in the inner in
this inner part of the city in the second, Penzing [??] in the second
district. And my father died when--when I was six years old. And we were
six children and the smallest three and the oldest 12. And I was accepted
in an orphan home and that was in the outer in the outer part of the city.
And it so happened that it was in the part where Beethoven lived and worked
and our walks in the you know, whenever we had a walk as boys was a boys
orphan home of a Jewish orphan home of about 50 boys. And whenever we
walked, we walked out in the Vienna woods, called the Beethoven, uh,
Beethoven Way. And my daily way to school was past the house where
Beethoven wrote his Eroica. Still there, the plaque.
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Strasser: Do you. Do you know the name of the cemetery where your father
was buried?
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Buchwald: Central Friedhof in Wien.
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Strasser: Um, can you tell me a bit about your education, your schooling
in Vienna? Did you go to school in the orphanage, or did you go out?
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Buchwald: No, I went to I was I think I started school in the second
district. And I then out there, we went to public school. We went to public
school in in the 19th district. It is a half-- at that time it was a half
rural area still. And I went to public school. We went every day. We had
prefects who were the overseers of the boys. It was a good, it was a well,
well managed orphan home, I think. We were not. It was no Dickens
atmosphere.
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Strasser: What sort of courses did you take when you went to school?
Buchwald: Well, I
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Buchwald: went to public school from from my sixth to my 14th year. That's
the public school age in Austria was at that time. And, unfortunately, when
I was 14. The war the First World War was on. I was born four. So it 1918
when the war was over, the First World War, I was 14 years old. And, while
previous years, youngsters went to two middle school and high school, I
was, you know, the war, the conditions and all this program was broken up.
And with 14 years I was put in a in at work. I started to work as an
apprentice. As an apprentice in a feather. How do you say on heads, you
know, Strasser: Hats? Buchwald: and had feathers and and, you know, these
these things which women put on their heads that was produced there and
these things Boas, you know, produced. There was a place where about 50
women worked and the owners were a Jewish family, well-to-do Jewish family.
And apparently the, if I remember right, the director of the orphan home
was some some club together with this man. And he-- it wasn't so easy at
that time to get a job, even as an apprentice. And I got paid. I got paid.
And I was at that time I came, yeah, home. The home was I was I came home
from the from the home to my mother. Strasser: Right. Buchwald: And with 14
and lived until I married, lived with my mother.
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Strasser: And help support with her.
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Buchwald: r. Yes. It was a very important thing she was with she she. She
supported herself with thing which doesn't exist anymore, to mend stockings
and socks. She had a machine. She had a hand machine to-to- to do this. And
from time to time she had she had a worker help her work there.
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Strasser: Excuse me. Mm. And she never remarried. Then did she eventually
come to America with you? Buchwald: No.
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Buchwald: In 1938, when Hitler came to Austria, at that time, my oldest
sister was two years old and I had gone to Palestine, married two children,
and my mother could go there because the British were the British had had
held Palestine, as it was at that time, held, ruled it, and it was a
British colony. And in order to balance. It's the same question how many
Jews, how many Jews would they let in? That it was a matter of appeasement
to the Arabs. So one rule was that if a child was there, the mother could
come. So, in this case, my mother was the first one of us after Hitler
came, who emigrated, emigrated from Vienna because the British gave her
permission to go to Israel. So she left as we were all, of course, at that
time. In fact, some families and so on. I was married by that time.
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Strasser: What did you belong to? Any clubs or Zionist organizations or
social groups for Jews? I.
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Buchwald: I was not I did not I was not a Zionist. I was a socialist. I
belonged to the socialist youth groups in Vienna for my 14 or 15 years or
year on. And as I said, I worked in this Feder schmuck Phaidon. I don't
know what you would call it. You know what I'm talking about making little
things for little or big things for some. Sometimes we made all heads from
they made heads from and I was really in the manipulation in the, in the to
which is an important thing for this. You know the feathers come animals
have ostriches was a big big thing but all these feathers are different you
know there are some some birds who have well, have maybe sick birds. Some
parts of the of the bird has better feathers has and they were to be
sordid. And this is a very important thing because you could in sorting you
could really make a big you know you could lose or gain money this way. So
it was pretty important to do that. So why did I say this now?
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Strasser: We're talking about what organizations you belong to. You said
you were a Socialist.
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Buchwald: Yeah, I was a Socialist. And I even for a while, was in the
union of these young girls who of the youth organization of this of this in
the union. I was helping them out.
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Strasser: Right. And how long did you work in this?
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Buchwald: In this fact? They had the. I worked there for about. Let me
see. Jean. About six, eight years. And then I worked for. Then they closed
up and. They. And then I worked for a couple of years in a hat factory. But
when I was about 18, I stopped most of my activities, my social activities,
and started to go to night school and went to going. Should I help you? No.
And I. I went to Mills to an evening meal, to an evening school. Went five
days a five evenings a week for three hours to school. After work, I made
my Matura, which is the equivalent of here of the entrance exam in into a
college. And I started to go to college by that night. College. Well, I
inscribed at the university. But by that time I lost my job at the head
factory too.
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Buchwald: And-- Strasser: Was this because you were Jewish?
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No, no. Just because of bad conditions in the in the industry and
inflation. It was a bad time. And through my connections with the Socialist
Party from through friends, I got a job in the Social Security Board and
the Social Security organization for white collar workers. And I worked
there for-- until Hitler came. No, no, not until Hitler came. I worked
there till 1934. When Schuschnig-- when when Dollfuss made his his putsch
in Vienna. He. He put parliament out of action. He forbid the Socialist
Party and some. I had still worked underground for a socialist party. It
was found out and I was fired. But I worked up to then there I worked. By
that time I had already made a few examines in law and said I went to law
school this law school evenings, evening school, and I had already 2 or 3
exams and. So I lost my job and I didn't have money to go on. I started to
sell books and later on I became a I bought. A hut on a market and started
to sell beans and meal and eggs and sugar. And I was I became a grocer. My
wife joined me in this. We went to open the winter was pretty bad there,
but we had at least in the back we had a had a would stand. And so from
1935 till 1938, we had this stand and it was very successful. Of course, in
the beginning it was very slow. We didn't know I didn't know beans from
from lentils, which but my mother came every day to the stand and she said,
well, if I would if I buy, I want this and I would like to have this and
this. And we learned we learned from our customers. And I remember the
first Saturday. When we had this this market stand we had. We had 80
shillings. Made you know, and I remember later. After three years, we had
about 3004 between 3 and 4000. So that's really started to to work and we
started to make a living there. By the time we had a child.
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Strasser: When did you get married?
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Buchwald: I got married when I was 26, 1930. And I knew Annie for many
years from the youth organization. And we so at last we married. We I was
always a little hesitant not just to marry, but to make big decisions. So I
had to still support my mother. And until we decided that it will work, we
will. It will work, too.
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Strasser: When did you start realizing Hitler's invasion was. Imminent and
planned to leave the country.
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Buchwald: Well, Austria was for four years before that already in fascist,
and the ruling Christian Democrats thought they could keep the German
fascism out of Austria by making Austria fascist go fascist to in their own
way. And they thought that the people would support them because Austria is
a Catholic country and German is a pro-Western country, and their thought
was that it would work because it was imminent, that the Germans will make
a will want all German speaking people together. The idea that Austria
should join Germany is an old one, goes back to the middle of the last
century. In fact, till 1848. They wanted many German nationalists wanted to
join Germany because, as I mentioned, so many thousands flocked to to
Austria. They came from all parts of of of the old monarchy when when the
last emperor in the war at last saw the light that he that there. That
nationalism in in his empire will over. Will. Will. Will. Will. Break up
the empire. He thought of a federal of a federated system. And he you know
all through the war they didn't. Parliament did not. There was a parliament
which wasn't which only the upper classes were. Really, really represented
in. But he thought to call in all the these different nationalities and he
this last appeal was made in 26 languages. That means 26 languages were 26
nationalities were combined in this Austrian monarchy from far into Russia,
from Ukraine to Italy to Serbia to there were dozens of, you know, Slavic
languages and Hungarian Romanian.
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Buchwald: Everything was in it was a big if you look at the map, this was
a had 60 million people, so it was bigger than present day Germany. It was
a big, really big. And in 1918, after the war, the Austrian part, the
German part was 7 million. So it was a breakup. Now these German, the
Germans most of the time. Ruled over all the other nationalities and they
saw it was kind of a situation like in Rhodesia today. You know, there's a
small German speaking ruling class like it is there small white class
ruling, a big black majority, and they're ruling a majority of 26 nations.
And they wakened up to the war. They wakened up. They woke up to the
defeats, the the Austrians and Germans had from the allies. Slowly, you
know, defeat is always a bad thing for the rulers. And but these German
these German speaking Austrians wandered for 50, 60 years. They their aim
was to combine with Germany, Anschluss und Deutschland, Anschluss und
Deutschland. It means go with with Germany. And of course, all the others
didn't care for it. The majority didn't care for that.
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Buchwald: But out of this little group, which was strong because it was
the ruling, it was at least part of the ruling class and ruling manage
managing people out of this grew the. Uh, these are the beginnings of the
Nazi of the Nazi Party. And when Hitler took over in 1930 three inches
Germany, all these were very vocally these German nationalists were very
vocal. Now is the time to go with a strong Germany and. Dole Foods and the
Christian Democrats and the church. The Catholic Church, because the
Catholic Church was very political at that time and supported all this. In
fact, for years. Prahlad Seipel. Was the premier of Austria. So the church
was really in open rule. Now, they thought because Austria is Catholic, if
they have an authoritarian system, they can keep Austria, which was at that
time, as I say, 7 million above out of this German empire of this German
Third Reich. And if they would have had the. The good sense to do this as a
popular movement. Include the workers include the socialists in that it
might have it might have worked if, after all, Hitler took Czechoslovakia.
He didn't. He didn't. So it might have worked for a while, but they thought
they could. And the dolphins thought and his party this they thought they
could rule authoritarian people.
