Jewish Life in the Second District of Vienna before the Shoah

Going to the synagogue

Watch the testimony below.

Ferdinand Kalina was born in 1916. He grew up in the 2nd district, where his family ran an antique shop. As a child, Kalina helped out in the shop. In 1938 he fled to Bratislava. Later he managed to escape from a youth-forced-labour camp in Svätý Jur (Slovakia). During the last months of the war he was hidden by a Slovakian man. Most of Kalina’s family was killed in the Holocaust by the National Socialists. In 1968 he returned to Vienna for a few years but soon emigrated to Australia. This interview was conducted by the USC Shoah Foundation in Melbourne, Australia in 1998.


ContinueBack to map

Terms and Privacy

© 2024 USC Shoah Foundation, All Rights Reserved