Marcus (Mark) Tennenbaum was instrumental in securing exit visas and making other emigration arrangements for most members of his family. Marcus, Ernestine, and Robert escaped Vienna via the Queen Mary which left Cherbourg, France on March 19, 1939 and arrived in New York on March 23.
Film can label reads:"Poertschach-Heiligenblut-Groszglocknerstr. Tour mit Dr. Finkler 9-14 August 1937; In Kitzbuehel, Tirol mit Pressner u. Ergas 7-15 Feb. 1938" See departmental files for Marcus Tennenbaum's memoir about his family's escape from Vienna in March 1939.
Tennenbaum family vacations
The Tennenbaum family on vacation in the Austrian countryside in August 1937, opening with a panning shot of a lake. A man on a hiking trail with a camera around his neck. People dancing at a hotel or resort; a man paddling a kayak; more leisure activity and nature scenes, some shot from a moving car. Label on the film can identifies the trip as a tour between Poertschach and Heiligenblut, Austria with Dr. Finkler. [Dr. Finkler was a friend of the Tennenbaums. In his memoir, Marcus writes of trying to convince Dr. Finkler to flee Austria, but Finkler felt he could not leave his elderly parents and was later deported and died in Theresienstadt.] Winter vacation in Kitzbuehel, Tirol in the Austrian Alps in February 1938. Street scene in a snow-covered village. Woman figure skating on a frozen lake. More quaint street scenes. Two and then three people posing outside the Hotel Tyrol, holding skis. The same group(?) at the Kitzbuehel train station, then cross-country skiing and throwing snowballs. Skiers coming off of a jump in a competition while crowds watch. One of the skiers falls after he lands. A swastika banner is briefly visible. More scenes at the train station; this time the snow is falling heavily. More skiing. One of the men of the group snowplows very slowly down a gradual slope. The Tennenbaums' companions on this vacation were Jules Pressner and Victor Ergas, both of whom lived in Paris. [As Marcus prepared to flee Austria, he shipped many of his family's possessions to Pressner and Ergas in Paris. He reclaimed them when he and his family passed through Paris on the way to board the Queen Mary in Cherbourg. Marcus writes in his memoir that Pressner managed to escape when the Nazis invaded France; Ergas was deported and perished at Mauthausen (Gusen).]