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When the events of 1938 approached, it was evident for the rest of the family that they needed to get out of Vienna, and with notable exceptions they scattered in every direction, ending up in London, Sydney, Melbourne, Zurich, Toronto, New York, and Buenos Aires.
From the old generation there was only Adolf left, who died May 28, 1939 at age 92. He and his wife Therese, who died in 1936, are resting in the family plot.
Gisela died July 20, 1939. Whether she was taken to a concentration camp we don’t know. But we know now from a list of Holocaust victims that her husband Josef Stricker as well as Karl’s wife Emma and her son Richard were deported to Litzmannstadt (Lodz) and were killed in 1942. Gisela currently rests with Sigmund & Mathilde. Her two sons Franz and Ernst fled to Chicago. Emma’s second son Francis fled to London with his wife Pauline and their daughter Tess.
Sandor's son Stephan was arrested and sent to Dachau and later to Buchenwald. Fortunately he was released after 9 months on a sponsored visa the family was able to arrange for him to Australia. Sandor with his second wife and long time companion Lea Bondi, whom he married after his first wife Karoline died in 1936, fled to London. Sandor died in exile July 5, 1943. Sandor Jaray is the only one of Sigmund and Mathilde's sons not currently resting in the family plot. Sandor currently rests in Golder's Green, London.
We don’t know what happened to Max’s daughter Mathilde who was married to Hans Raabe. They had two children Erika and Christian. The last information is that she went to Berlin while her husband was registered in Vienna until 1947.
Alfred’s son George was at this time already in Canada. His mother Fanny and his brother Herbert fled to London and later to Australia.
Adolf’s son Paul already moved to Switzerland in 1923. His brother Karl first fled to London with his wife and children and later he moved to Buenos Aires. His brother Felix fled to New Zealand with his wife Mimi and son Walter.
Only “old” Sándor’s children stayed in Vienna. Julie died in Vienna January 11, 1940 and her brother Karl in August 1944. There were only three of this branch who emigrated to the US. Karl’s children Hans, who returned to Vienna in 1948, and Maria. Julie’s daughter Elisabeth fled with her husband Paul Margulies while her sister Emma and brother Friedrich stayed there with their families. The children of Antonie, Sándor’s oldest daughter, Gertrude and Ernst Bayer also stayed in Vienna.
Those who managed to emigrate faced discrimination and poverty starting over in countries which didn't take kindly to European immigrants. They had no relatives, suffered internment, had language problems and few friends. London and Australia were overtly unsympathetic to European refugees. In London during the war, German and Austrian refugees were interned, and opportunities to earn a living were limited, if they existed at all. Communications and foreign travel were extremely difficult even if the money was available. These were the conditions our family faced.
After the war, Austria as well as Vienna was divided into four zones and ruled by the four armies of occupation under the command of the High Commissioners Clark (USA), Konjew (UdSSR) McCreery (Great Britain) and Béthouart (France). Even when Austria got a new parliament in November 1945, any thoughts of returning to a homeland were futile. The Jarays continued their independent lives in separate countries, living without benefit of relatives for the next 60 years. It wasn't until 1995, when the second generation of emigrant Jaray families reached maturity, that they were ready now to began to reunite. Aside from Sigmund's sisters and their families, (whom we would of course like to locate), there currently exist two branches of Sigmund and Mathilde's children missing. The families of Gisela's two sons, Franz and Ernst Stricker, where we know that they fled to Chicago and passed away in 1965 and 1966. Those families have yet to be located.
Hopefully these cousins will eventually surface. |
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History
