Lucia Heilman

Dr. LUCIA HEILMAN

Vienna, Austria
Interviewed in Vienna in 2008 by Tanja Eckstein

Historical note: At the beginning of the 20th century, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was one of the largest in Europe. Allied with Germany in the First World War, the Empire collapsed toward the end of the First World War, and the truncated republic of Austria was formed in 1918. Vienna was its capital, and nearly 200,000 Jews lived in the city then. Hitler’s Germany invaded in 1938, and many Austrians welcomed the anschluss. After being subsumed into the German reich, Vienna’s Jews desperately tried to flee. More than 130,000 did so; some 65,000 did not, remained at home and were sent to their deaths by their neighbors.

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“Even today, I share this story with all children who have also been kicked out of school—for whatever reason.”

It wasn’t long after the Germans came [March 1938] that the director of our school came into the class and said that the Jewish children had to get out. I was nine-years-old. So we took our schoolbags, put away our pencil cases and notebooks, and left the class. That felt like a terrible humiliation. Exclusion from the classroom, an expulsion, for reasons incomprehensible to me. Even today, I share that story with all children who have also been kicked out of school—for whatever reason. This humiliation accompanied us as children and even up until today. It never leaves you.

From that point forward we Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend school like other children. They [the Vienna Jewish community] set up special classes and schools for us. One of those schools was on Börse-Gasse, where I went. But there were only lessons “of a sort” there, since we didn’t have any qualified teachers.

After school we had always liked going to Schlick Park. I wanted to keep going, since playing in parks is what children do! I remember we went from our school on Börse-Gasse to Schlick Park, and on all the benches it was written, “Only for Aryans.” The effort they put into writing that on every bench, “Only for Aryans.” Every single bench!

Then Jewish children weren’t even allowed to enter the park anymore so we played in the streets nearby. There were, of course, Christian children there as well. By this time I was nine, ten years old and the Christian boys made a sport of chasing the Jewish girls, throwing them down onto the pavement and hitting them. I became afraid of even going out on the street, because I was afraid those boys would attack me. It was easier before we were told we had to wear the yellow stars on our clothes, since the boys couldn’t easily recognize the Jewish children yet. But then that all changed.

[A few months later] My grandfather was interned in the Prater [a large park in Vienna], in the soccer stadium, with other men – only men were being collected at that time. It was communicated to my mother that she was allowed to bring him something to wear. What she was allowed to bring was prescribed. With a little suitcase that had his name written on it we positioned ourselves by the stadium to hand his things over. While we stood in line, we weren’t allowed to speak and could only barely move. Whoever misbehaved would be pushed or beaten by the stewards, or even the SS men. It was terrible!

The worst experiences for a child is when you see your own mother being beaten up, when you’re helplessly at the mercy of other people—viscously cruel people. I saw this while standing in that line.

Lucia Heilman and her mother went into hiding in Vienna and survived together. Lucia studied medicine and practiced in Vienna until her seventies.

BULLYING STORIES

Bullying Stories

“It’s something that never leaves you. It’s something you never forget, no matter how long you live.”

STANDING UP STORIES

Standing up Stories

“The priest gave me a Christian name for my false papers. I’ve kept it ever since because he didn’t just give me a name, he gave me a life.”