us-005578-irn524189-irn524424
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: 76 p. ; 27 cm.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has beginning date: 1944-01-01
has end date: 1945-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: eng
has record set type: Item
history: The magazine was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007 by Margit Meissner.
history: Margit Morawetz was born February 26, 1922, in Innsbruck, Austria. Her parents were Gottlieb Morawetz and Lilly Tritsch. She had three older brothers, Paul, Felix, and Bruno. They ranged in age from 8 to 5 years older than Margit. The family was wealthy and assimilated. Margit's father came from an orthodox Jewish family of poor tenant farmers in Bohemia. He studied law in Vienna and worked as a bank director. Her mother came from an assimilated Jewish family in Vienna and was educated in England and France. When Margit was one year old, the family moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia, where her father taught on the law faculty of Charles University, in addition to working in finance. Margit and her brothers grew up speaking Czech, German, French, and English. Lilly was ambivalent about the family's Jewish identity and wanted to have the children baptized. Her husband would not allow it, and the children were never given any religious education. In 1932, Gottlieb died suddenly at age 52. Lilly was then 39. The two oldest brothers, Paul and Felix, went overseas. Bruno stayed in Prague and studied agriculture. In 1938, when Nazi Germany annexed Austria, Lilly decided it was safer to take Margit, then 16, out of school and send her to Paris, where she lived with a French family and studied dressmaking. Lilly was visiting Margit in Paris later that year when Germany annexed part of Czechoslovakia. Lilly hurried back to Prague to sell their home and ship their possessions to Paris, but while she was still in Prague, Germany annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia. Both she and her son Bruno managed to escape to Paris, but had to leave everything behind. Because of his agricultural training, Bruno was allowed to go to England to work as a farmhand. During this period, Margit was baptized a Lutheran with her mother's encouragement, possibly with the thought that it would provide some protection. Even before that, however, their papers did not identify them as Jews, only as Austrian …
identifier: irn524424
is or was included in: us-005578-irn524189
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Victory Magazine acquired Margit Morawetz Gyorgy when she worked for the Office of War Information. Before the war, Margit's mother, Lilly, sent her to study in Paris in 1938 because the expansion of German rule posed a threat to their life in Prague. Lilly joined Margit there a year later, but because she was an Austrian citizen, was imprisoned as an enemy alien after France declared war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. Lilly was released when Germany occupied France in May 1940. She and Margit escaped to Portugal and, in 1941, were able to immigrate to the US. After America's entry into World War II, Margit worked for the Office of War Information, making use of her knowledge of languages. Postwar, Margit worked as a youth activities specialist for the U.S. Army Assistance Program to German Youth, re-educating former Hitler Youth in Furth, Germany.
title: Victory (New York, New York) [Magazine]