Once Vienna

By Erich Scharf

We are all part of the history of the world. Erich Scharf, always viewed his life as part of a chain, a Jewish chain. He loved and lived history from a Jewish perspective.  Erich, was not a rigorous 'religious' Jew. If anything, his interests in Physics and Philosophy probably had as great an influence in molding his beliefs, as did his experiences with Zionism and being raised Jewish in 1920-30s Vienna, amidst the rise of fascism and virulent antisemitism. As a teenager, he survived the political turmoil and devastation of a Nazi invasion of his country. He witnessed the destruction of the political structure of Europe and the persecution of the Jews as "the scapegoat" of Hitler's empire. In this book he describes life in Vienna as a young boy, the rise of Nazism, the takeover of Austria by Germany, his family's escape from Nazi rule, and the stories of others who were not as fortunate, and perished. Family and friends scattered all over the globe in order to escape and survive. Their journeys for survival took them to far reaching places like New Zealand, Shanghai (China), Palestine, England, Argentina, Cuba, as well as the United States.  These life events formed Erich's strong belief in family loyalty and unity. He practiced and taught "family before self." He also believed that survival requires Jews to be aware and be defiant against the rest of the world when necessary. "We are here. We survived. We are free, and we will do everything possible to not let it happen again." One of his core desires was for the Jews to have their own homeland, Israel. He believed fervently that had Israel existed, millions of lives would have been saved. He also was grateful that he, along with many others, were able to rebuild their Jewish lives in America, and would ask himself "How did someone like me end up in Florida?" Erich understood that his written word would carry his history, and the history of those who came before him, into the future. This book will hopefully introduce or remind readers of the dangers of certain political and social climates and the consequences of spurning division and hate between peoples. If this book inspires just one reader to speak out against inexcusable behavior of one human being against another, then it has served a purpose. This is a story of the horrors created by hate, and the hope and survival of those who lived it.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nomi Publishing
• Release date: Dec 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393933861

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Copyright © 2020 Miriam Silvermintz. All rights reserved.

Published by Miriam Silvermintz

Original text by Erich Scharf. Edited by Charlotte Scharf, Naomi Straney, Miriam Silvermintz, and Albert Scharf. A thank you to cousins Joachim, Peter and Adria Scharf, who helped to fill in some of the gaps of this story.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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On a personal note – yes, I believe in G-d. I believe that there is a purpose behind the creation of our universe, and its multitude of inhabitants. But I also believe that the devil is in the details, which, it may turn out, are not easily grasped. These devilish details may not be uniformly beneficent for the inhabitants of this overwhelming home of man, nor for all of his cohabitants, from microbes to suns. In writing this memoir, I shall avoid, specifically, religious matters, the resolution of which, I shall leave to my readers, and to those who are currently laboring on resolving pertinent questions."  - Erich Scharf

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This is a memoir. People, places, dates and events have been verified as much as possible. We do not certify 100% accuracy.

Family Tree

Prologue

March 11, 1938 was my sister Joanne’s 12th birthday. By early evening, the family had completed the usual formalities as befits such an occasion, birthday cake had been consumed, and gifts dispensed. About 8 o’clock in the evening, we gathered around the radio, and switched on a musical program. It was not long before the program was interrupted with the announcement that Austria’s Chancellor Kurt Von Schuschnigg would read a brief statement. 

After a brief pause, the chancellor started to speak. He announced that the plebiscite, a public vote, scheduled two days hence, to determine whether Austrians wanted to remain independent or become united with Germany, was canceled. The radio announcement of the cancellation was followed by the playing of Haydn’s Emperor Variations, the national anthem for both Austria and Germany.

What was not known to the general public was that Schuschnigg had met with Hitler in mid-February at Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s mountain retreat. He was met with threats, insults and demands to release Nazis in Austrian prisons and to place Nazis in political positions of power. 

Initially, Schuschnigg acquiesced to Hitler’s demands but decided to present the plebiscite to the Austrian people in the hopes they would vote to retain sovereignty. Hitler was outraged and demanded the plebiscite be cancelled immediately.

Soon after Schuschnigg’s radio broadcast announcing the cancellation, he was forced to resign and then arrested. The following morning, March 12th, the German army marched into Austria, meeting no resistance from the Austrian government and the people. They were greeted everywhere by enthusiastic and jubilant crowds.

Thus, my country was betrayed by its own government. Control was handed over to the members of the illegal Nazi party, a subversive minority, whose members had infiltrated the army and police at all levels. It is my firm belief that determined resistance by the Austrian government could have changed the fate of the world. Hitler’s threat was largely bluff. A temporary delay of the invading German forces at the Austrian border could have triggered help from others, and might have even toppled the Nazi regime. After all, the German generals had previously expressed their apprehension at the aggressive stance of the Hitler regime, due to their own military and economic weakness. Thus, the premature capitulation by Austria’s government brought my days as a typical Viennese boy, studying in high school and living the good life in the venerable city of Vienna, to an end.

By the time the curtain lifted from the carnage of the Second World War, little was left of the vibrant Jewish life that had flourished in Europe. By the time the war ended, the remnants of my family had been dispersed. They could be found here and there, in the destroyed countryside of Europe, and in far flung places throughout the world, such as New Zealand, China, Palestine, Cuba, the United States, Brazil, and England.

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The Migration from Galicia to Vienna

(Poland and Ukraine)

My Ancestors

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My family saga begins with my great grandparents in the mid-1800s where attainable records were used to trace back my family history.  

My Paternal Great Grandparents

Efraim and Jetti Scharf (nee Elsner)

Efraim and Jetti Scharf lived in a little village called Marcyporeba, now located in southern Poland, south west of Krakow. Efraim and Jetti had three sons and a daughter: Jakob, Bernhard, Joachim and Leonore. 

Before WWI Marcyporeba was part of Russia and was on a route that led from Germany to what is now, Lviv, Ukraine. This route was one where Jews often migrated east because it was dotted with towns that were vibrant with Jewish life. 

Marcyporeba, like much of the region, was fraught with intense anti-Semitism. As such, the Jews in the area became a tightly cohesive community to survive, and were predominantly orthodox. 

Efraim was known to be a strict disciplinarian to his four children. He insisted that his sons receive formal religious training. An anecdote of Ephraim’s tyrannical nature is when his son, Jakob, elected, on a fine winter day, to go ice skating instead of going to Shabbat (Sabbath) services. He broke his leg and was so afraid to ask for help from his father that a bystander and stranger arranged to help him instead.

Towards the end of the 19th century, well before the outbreak of WWI, there were devastating pogroms (an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group) in the region towards the Jews. Much of the Jewish population migrated to other areas, such as Vienna and the United States. The Emperor Franz Joseph, who reigned in Vienna at the time, promoted rights for the disenfranchised. It was during this time period that Efraim and Jetti sold their tavern. They moved to Krakow for a few years, before emigrating to what must have seemed like a huge metropolis, Vienna, to be near their children who were grown by then.  

Prior to Franz Joseph’s rule, Vienna had been a restricted city to new Jewish residents. With greater rights, the Jewish population swelled. This did not mean that anti-Semitism disappeared; only that one could be educated, work hard, and become successful. The progressive laws encouraged Jewish intellectual life to blossom, and a vibrant Jewish society grew there until 1938 when the Nazi’s took over.

Once in Vienna, Efraim traded commodities, like wheat, to earn a living. He seems to have been successful for a while. Unfortunately, he was prone to speculation. For example, he took the U.S. dollars that he had saved, and exchanged them for Czarist rubles just before the Russian Revolution in 1917, a speculation that resulted in financial disaster. Fortunately, his son, Joachim was able to give him a job at his family’s meat packing business to provide for his financial well-being.

It is possible that Efraim came from a line of Scharfs (aka Scharff) that lived in Lower Saxony or Bavaria in Germany. Whether his family came east to Russia during the German persecution of Jews in the early 19th century or another time, we do not know. We also do not know much about Jetti other than her maiden name was Elsner and that she was born in Marcyporeba.

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The Children of Efraim and Jetti Scharf

Jakob (Kuba)

Jakob, was called Kuba by all who knew him. He and his second wife Mela (Amelia/Amalie) were known as the Kubaners. Kuba was a physician and specialist in digestive disorders. He had a clinic and lived in Karlsbad, now known as Karlovy Vary, an exclusive Czechoslovakian spa-city west of Prague. 

Kuba’s first marriage was said to have been an unhappy one. His first wife died of tuberculosis in 1910. My father, Albert and Kuba were quite close. This developed as a result of an incident during WWI. While serving on the Russian front, my father fell ill with amoebic dysentery and was hospitalized. Medical treatments at the time were rudimentary, and sanitary conditions were pretty bad. His prospects for recovery seemed to be poor. Kuba, who was a medical officer in the Austrian army, was on an inspection assignment and coincidentally passed through my father’s tent and recognized him. Kuba immediately arranged for my father’s transfer to a better facility, an action that saved his life.

Mela had also been married before to Alfred Freed. Unfortunately, Alfred, a high ranking general, died young and as such, Mela became a young widow. She came from Żółkiew, in the Ukraine and had sons from her first marriage. 

Mela and Kuba met after WWI, when she was a patient at his clinic. They married in Karlsbad in 1923. Since they lived far from Vienna, I did not see them often. However, my father would make a pilgrimage to Karlsbad from time to time, from which he would return somewhat trimmer after a short stay. His treatments, given by his uncle, were mostly prescriptions for food diets.

During the 1920s, Kuba and my father shared their interests in Zionism, a movement to create a Jewish nation in the land now known as Israel, then called Palestine, and which was under British rule. It was during this period, before the rise of Hitler and the German takeover of Austria, that both men purchased real estate in Palestine. Kuba bought an apartment house, and my father, an undeveloped block of land in Tel Aviv. 

My father was said to have had some qualms about the purchase of these properties and sold his, giving up a choice block on Diezengoff Street in Tel Aviv. It turns out my father made a poor business decision to sell as that became a central and valuable street in the city. 

Kuba, fortunately, held onto his building. Thus, when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, Kuba was readily issued a British Capitalist visa to Palestine which enabled him to escape the Nazi terror. By that time, in the late 1930s, Kuba was already a man in his 70s.

After WWII, in 1948, Kuba and Mela moved to New Zealand from Palestine, following in the footsteps of Mela’s son William (Willy), who had been stationed there during the war. Kuba and Mela remained there for the remainder of their lives.

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Bernhard

My favorite Great Uncle, and the youngest of Efraim and Jetti’s children, was Bernhard. He lived in Vienna very close to my family and his sister in law, Paula (my grandmother). Bernhard was a dentist and I remember him as a ‘torturer.’ In the 1920s and 30s electric drills had not