Edmund Raab

Edmund RAAB, born on July 5^th, 1913 in Vienna/Austro-Hungarian empire [Austria] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Heinrich Raab (1882-1942, sausage manufacturer) and Irma Raab, née Rosenstrauch (1883-1942), lived in Vienna's 13^th district, Wenzgasse 17 and had studied law at the University of Vienna.

He was no longer enrolled at the Law School in 1938, but was preparing for the final exams ("Rigorosen"). It was unclear for several months whether, after the "Anschluss", he would be forced to abandon the examination procedure for racist reasons and leave the University of Vienna without a degree. After a long period of uncertainty, he was able to complete his studies and receive his doctorate on October 31^st, 1938 under numerous symbolic discriminations in the context of a "non-Aryan doctorate", while at the same time being banned from profession in the entire German Reich.

Edmund Raab came from a middle-class background, was the only child of his parents, who had both immigrated to Vienna from Bohemia and had built up an existence here, marrying in 1912 in the temple in Vienna-Josefstadt. His father was half owner of the sausage factory "Ludwig Geiger OHG" (Vienna's 5^th district, Wehrgasse 21 and Grüngasse 11) and owner of a tobacconist's shop (Tabak-Trafik) in Vienna's 9^th district, Spitalgasse 21, was able to acquire a plot of land in Vienna's 13^th district, Wenzgasse 17, in 1932 and to build a house and garden there until 1936, and his mother owned shares in two tenement houses in Vienna's 9^th district for her security. His life plans to work as a lawyer after studying law fitted into this picture.
But after the National Socialist seizure of power, disenfranchisement, expropriation, and psychological and physical persecution set in quickly and comprehensively.

Edmund Raab had to flee Vienna, and as early as the summer of 1938, while waiting for his doctorate to be granted, he sought support from the welfare office of the Jewish Community of Vienna to emigrate to Brazil or the United States. He lists as contacts the husband of a cousin in Brazil (Norbert Gryzle in Rio de Janeiro), his father's sister in the U.S. (Ernestine and Sam Kranzler, Los Angeles), and his father's brother in the U.S. (Hermann Raab, Bronx, New York City, NY). As his profession he gave the hoped-for early completion of his law studies, but also additional knowledge of English shorthand and commercial correspondence as well as typing and many years of experience as a piano player, and besides German and Latin also English and Portuguese language skills.

A few months after graduation he finally managed to leave for Great Britain on March 16^th, 1939, but was soon interned as an enemy alien at Kitchener Camp, Richborough near Sandwich, Kent, England. It was not until he received his visa for the U.S. at the London U.S. Embassy in late October 1939 that he was able to leave Liverpool, England for the U.S. on November 13^th, 1939, arriving with the SS Georgic in New York City, NY on November 22^nd, 1939 with the desire to travel on to his uncle Samuel Kranzler in Los Angeles to settle.

In Vienna during this time, the parents' property was expropriated ("Aryanized") and they were evicted from their home and had to change their residence four times between 1939 and 1942. Most recently, they were deported to the Maly Trostinec extermination camp near Minsk [Мінск/Belarus] on June 9^th, 1942, and murdered a few days later on June 15^th, 1942.

Edmund Raab initially worked in Los Angeles in various manual jobs, including as an elevator attendant (Electric Elevator Operator's License dated May 20^th, 1942), and eventually became a social worker and also took photographs.

In October 1940, he was mustered into the U.S. Army in Los Angeles - he was then living at 1026 W 3^rd str. - and enlisted in the U.S. Army on May 15^th, 1943 - he was an accountant at the time - but was honorably discharged after only two weeks on May 28^th, 1943.

From October 1946 he tried to find out from the U.S. about the fate of his parents and to have the expropriations of the Nazi period reversed by the U.S. occupation authorities but also by the Austrian authorities, but after several years of proceedings he received only a loss of rent in 1950, but the properties were not restituted.
He himself never returned to Austria. He had been a U.S. citizen since October 22^nd, 1943, expanding his name to Edmund William Raab, and had married Lois F. Scritchfield, an American born in Kansas on November 2^nd, 1919, a teacher in a junior high school, in California on July 18^th, 1947.
They lived for the next several decades at various addresses in and around Los Angeles, CA (1948: 915 S Kenmore Avenue; 1950: 915 W 9^th street; 1954: 5403 W 119^th street; 1962: 218 S Poinsettia Place; 1971: 334 N Sycamore Avenue, last: 1040 N Gardner street #6, West Hollywood).

A 1961 suit filed by Edmund W. Raab with the Settlement Fund in Vienna ended after years with partial compensation for the looted property; a 1965 suit filed with the Relief Fund in Vienna for "compensation for professional injuries" also ended in early 1971 with partial compensation.

Edmund W. Raab died on September 20^th, 1974 in Los Angeles, CA/USA.

Among other things, he left behind an extensive slide collection of dance and theater performances from the 1950s to the 1970s in the Los Angeles area, which was donated to the University of California Los Angeles by his widow Lois S. Raab in 1993 and is now publicly accessible as the "Edmund W. Raab collection of photographic slides, 1950-1974" in the UCLA Library Special Collections.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") IUR 1932–1938, final examination registry ("Rigorosen") IUR 268 (1937/38), graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") IUR X (1924–1939) No. 6542; Austrian State Archives OeStA/AdR/E-uReang/VVSt/VA 45700 u. VA 45184, OeStA/AdR/E-uReang/Hilfsfonds/NHF 38868, OeStA/AdR/E-uReang/FLD 15047, OeStA/AdR/E-uReang/Hilfsfonds/Abgeltungsfonds 6528 u. 11519; Municipal and Provincial Archives of Vienna WStLA/ 1.3.2.119.A41 I-428, Bezirk: 5, WStLA/ 1.3.2.119.A41 624, Bezirk: 13, WStLA/ 1.3.2.119.A41 609; 40, Bezirk: 13; POSCH 2009, 373; www.genteam.at; www.doew.at; yvng.yadvashem.org; heritage.statueofliberty.org/passenger; www.findbuch.at; oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8br8t5d/; www.ucla.edu; www.ussearch.com; information by courtsey of Peter Zander, Vienna 07/2022.

Herbert Posch u. Peter Zander