Edith Hoare

Edith Hoare was born in November 1928 in Vienna as the second daughter of Elsa Schwarz, née Fritz, and Elias Schwarz. Her maternal grandparents lived in Myjava, present-day Slovakia. Edith has fond memories of taking a train from Vienna to visit her grandparents for the holidays with her sister from Vienna. Her mother left Slovakia for Vienna where she met Edith’s father. Her mother was a passionate opera-lovers and was a great cook.

Her father Elias came from present-day Ukraine. He had a furrier store in the 8th district of Vienna. The family home was also in the 8th district in Tigergasse. One day near there, on her way to school, Edith saw Hitler in a cavalcade on Josefstädter Straße. She also remembers the headmistress of her school taking the children on a tour of the sights of Vienna. Edith enjoyed ice skating at an ice-rink near her flat where famous Austrian ice skaters trained. She vaguely recalls the family celebrating the High Holidays and sometimes Shabbat.

She remembers that the situation in Vienna changed and that her father’s furrier business was taken from him and he fled to Belgium, which left her devastated. They had to change houses to Strozzigasse and her older sister Mia left on a Kindertransport in May 1939. Edith arrived on a Kindertransport on the 18th July 1939.

In England she went first to a girls’ boarding school in Aldeburgh. She was then sent to Felsted Boarding School in Essex and then to Shropshire. One of the school governors of the school in Shropshire, Lady Mary Frances Holcroft, took her in and she was raised in Wrentnall House with Lady Holcroft’s own children. Edith and her sister felt they were part of the family. Edith’s sister Mia joined the Army at a young age and later emigrated to the USA.

Edith attended Shrewsbury High School and later a secretarial college. She met her husband Robin, an adjutant of the Shropshire Yeomanry, at a dance and they got married in 1954 in St. Edith’s Pulverbatch church near Shrewsbury. Edith was baptised in this church as well and confirmed in Coventry cathedral.

Edith and her husband settled in Marsh Court, Worcestershire, and when Edith had three children, she stayed at home to raise them. Edith did not talk about her past and only many years after the war, found out that both her parents had perished in concentration camps. She was not in touch with any other refugees or refugee organisations.

At the end of the interview Edith is joined by her daughter Camilla who found out about a second cousin in Israel when she and her brother started the process of obtaining the Austrian citizenship. Camilla is looking forward to meeting him in person and visiting her grandparents’ places of birth in Slovakia and Ukraine one day.

Key words:

Vienna. Schwarz. Fritz. Tigergasse. 8th District. Strozzigasse. Josefstädter Straße. Myjava, Slovakia. Ukraine. Kindertransport. Aldburgh. Terza Barnes? Aldburgh Boarding School for Girls. Felsted Boarding School. Thoby Priory. Shrewsbury. Shropshire, Ryton Hall, Shifnal Salop. Lady Mary Frances Holcroft. Wrentnall House. Marsh Court. Worcestershire. Ledbury.