Autobiographical interviews of Jews born in German speaking countries ("Yekkes") - 50/60 years after their immigration to Israel

Maiden name: Gerda Pollatschek. She was born on 03/02/1921 in Vienna. Emigration to England in 1938. Jobs as factory worker, nanny and shop assistant. Later Comparative Religious Studies in London. Work as teacher (religion; German) and author. State examination as translator. She moved to Jerusalem in 1978. ; Gerda Hoffer's childhood: Her father Stefan Pollatschek was an author and journalist. She was used to see many guests in their house. As a child she found friends in the “Volksgarten” (a Viennese park) and with some of them she kept in touch until the present. (She first came to Israel to visit one of these friends who had emigrated to Israel.) In Vienna, Gerda Hoffer's family lived in district III (Grinzing) at Rudolf-Alt-Platz. She also kept in touch with the friends from the “Volksschule” and with her good teacher Springler. She became conscious of political problems for the first time after a strike in 1934. Her father was a member of the Socialist Writers' Association. G.H. became aware of social injustice when she was 12; she became a communist because of a communist boyfriend. She remembers the sea of flags with the swastika as a menacing impression after the annexation of Austria. (In 1958, when she spent her first vacation in Israel, she noticed that Israel might be the only country where there wasn't any threat for Jews.) Her schoolmates were among the people marching to receive Hitler. Thanks to an anonymous warning, her father luckily left the apartment one day before the Nazis come to arrest him. G.H. and her mother followed him to Czechoslovakia; there the Thomas Mann Committee arranged a departure to England. ; Gerda Hoffer's life in England (1938-1978) and her move to Israel: She felt fine in London, but she did not develop an English identity. - Her first job as baby's nurse was a totally new experience because she did not have any siblings. Later she worked as a governess in a wealthy house. Her father was interned with many other German-speaking people on the Isle of Man in 1940. G.H. and her mother stayed in a hostel for refugees, Gerda worked in a factory. After three months, a brother of General Montgomery had her father released; he joined them in the hostel, where he met interesting people like the author Ludwig Winder. But then her father was hospitalized following a heart attack. Therefore Gerda and her mother also moved to another hostel for refugees from Czechoslovakia in London. There G.H. got to know her future husband and married in 1942. Her father died three months later. The couple moved to Manchester with Gerda's mother. Soon, her husband was recruited into the army. G.H. also wanted to be recruited, but got no answer; finally she was allowed to work in a department store and stayed there until the end of the War. ; Then the couple returned to London. She had to convince her husband to stay in Europe because he wanted to make aliyah but she wanted security. Her husband came from Sudetenland. In GB, he had to repeat his law studies and exams. When he got his new diploma, Gerda Hoffer started Comparative Religion Studies. She did not count on job aspects, but she was soon offered a teaching position. She stayed only for three months because the work was too exhausting. Then she was encouraged to teach German language and literature in senior classes. Later she passed a State examination as translator at the Institute of Linguists and taught at London College. After the first invitation to Israel by her old friend from Vienna, she wanted to stay in Israel immediately. But now her husband wanted to wait until they were retired. They went on vacations to Israel as often as possible. When her husband died before the age of retirement, G.H. immigrated to Israel alone and felt at home there immediately. ; Gerda Hoffer's relationship to Austria, her attitude towards the German language, and details about Israel: She states that home is where you share a fate with people who may think absolutely different than you do. She experienced the Israelis as open to immigrants. (Examples of typical experiences, among those a story, how she unexpectedly met a relative of Elias Canetti.) In 1972 or 1973, she came back to Vienna for the first time after the War. Her negotiations with a publishing house, who had produced a book of her father after the war, but still owed her money, were not successful; but she could renew old personal connections. Good and bad memories emerged when she walked through Vienna, she felt nervous. ; About her attitudes toward standard language and dialect: As an author, her father attached great importance on standard German. He forbade the use of Yiddish words or the Viennese dialect, but they had a dialect-speaking maid. At present, Gerda Hoffer listens to standard German in Austrian TV; she realizes that dialects became socially acceptable among higher classes today. She feels almost hurt when she hears coarse dialect. Her schoolmates did not speak dialect, but had a Viennese intonation. As a teacher of German, she tried to get rid of her regional characteristics, but was not entirely successful. Asked by the interviewer [a professor of linguistics and dialectology] when Jews in general and her ancestors in particular switched from Yiddish to German, G.H. refers to the 1780-edict of Joseph II that all people in the empire should speak German: A great-grandfather of hers attended a school in Prague, later he became its headmaster and had to give up his Yiddish because of this edict. G.H. adds that at present a small percentage of orthodox Jews do not use Hebrew as everyday-language because they consider it as too holy and speak instead Yiddish. Yiddish is most spread in the USA today. Remarks about Israel: New immigrants in Israel usually start as workers and become wealthier after a few decades. G.H. thinks that people who immigrated from urban areas are usually more successful than those who lived in villages before. In her opinion, the Likud party neglects the working class and that this fact opens up chances for an “unpleasant” religious party.