Unearthing Victims and Survivors. Coming to Terms with the Bettauer Family in the Holocaust
Unearthing Victims and Survivors. Coming to Terms with the Bettauer Family in the Holocaust
Author(s): Nathaniel Parker WestonSubject(s): History, Language and Literature Studies, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), History of Antisemitism
Published by: Wiener Wiesenthal Institut für Holocaust-Studien
Keywords: Paula Bettauer; Helmut Bettauer; Reginald Parker; Hugo Bettauer; Hermine Löwensteinová; Vienna; Holocaust; family history; antisemitism;
Summary/Abstract: Much is known about the Viennese Jewish author Hugo Bettauer (1872–1925), author of Die Stadt ohne Juden (1922), a journalist, an advocate of open conversations about sexuality in the First Austrian Republic, and the first victim of the National Socialists in Austria. How-ever, less is known, by both historians and his descendants, about his family members leading up to and during the Holocaust. This article traces the research conducted by its author, Nathaniel Parker Weston, Hugo Bettauer’s great-grandson, to discover the fate of members of Bettauer’s family. Particular attention is placed on unearthing the stories of Hugo Bettauer’s son from his first marriage, Helmut Bettauer (1899–1942), and his sister, Hermine Löwensteinová (née Bettauer) (1870–1942), both of whom were murdered in death camps. The article also reflects on Hugo Bettauer’s son from his second marriage, Reginald Parker (1904–1967), the grandfather of the article’s author, recounting his actions to apparently obscure the Jewish background of their family history.
Journal: S:I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.
- Issue Year: 10/2023
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 151-165
- Page Count: 15
- Language: English