You are currently standing at a small square. The large street next to you is the Prater Street. It was and still is one of the most famous streets in Vienna. Back in the day it was lined with cafes and hotels.
The Prater Street was very diverse demographically: it was a melting pot, where rich and poor could meet with each other. Listen to Rudolf Gelbard and Kurt Schreier recounting their childhood near the Prater.
Rudolf Gelbard was born in 1930, in Vienna into a poor Jewish family. He describes himself as a “Gassenjunge” (street boy), and his family home as left-winged and Zionist. In 1942, he and his parents were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto. He lost most of his family during the years of the Shoah. Upon his return to Vienna, Gelbard quickly became politically active in the Social Democratic Party. He was honored by the Republic of Austria for his lectures and educational work on the topic of Nazi crimes.
Kurt Schreier was born in 1910. He grew up in impoverished circumstances and was in various orphanages from the age of 6. Schreier spent several months in the Dachau concentration camp, later was released, and managed to escape to Mauritius on a ship in 1939, where he stayed until the end of the war. Later, he returned to Vienna.
Both interviews were conducted in 1997 in Vienna by the USC Shoah Foundation.