Siegfried (Fred S.) Schiffer
| Born: |
04-01-1917 |
| Faculty: |
Law School |
| Category: |
Expelled student |
Siegfried (later Fred S.) SCHIFFER, born on April 1st, 1917 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Sauerbrunn/Burgenland, Citizenship: Austria), son of Arthur Schiffer (editorial journalist) and his wife Therese nee Grohslicht, lived in Vienna 6th district, Esterhazygasse 31, was enrolled finally in the fall term 1937/38 at the Law School in the 3rd year of his studies.
Siegfried Schiffer was able to leave for Great Britain in 1938 and spent the war years there. His efforts to secure entry visas for his parents, Arthur and Therese Schiffer, and his sisters Kaethe and Alice, were unsuccessful. On November 28th, 1941 they were deported from the apartment in Vienna 15th district, Sechshauserstrasse 11/8 to Minsk, where they perished.
In England Fred Schiffer met Olive Bohme, a refugee from Berlin. They married in 1942 and settled in Ipswich, where they had two children, Roger (1944-1994) and Jennifer (born in 1947).
The family emigrated to Buenos Aires/Argentina in 1948 and ten years later to Vancouver/Canada.
Fred Schiffer did not return to his legal studies – though both his son and his grandson later became lawyers. Instead he became a highly regarded portrait and commercial photographer. He was a founding member in Buenos Aires of the Carpeta de los Diez, a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and a Master Photographer.
In Vancouver he opened his studio on Seymour Street and was instrumental in setting up the first diploma program in Western Canada at Langara College. In his honor the Langara College awards the "Schiffer Memorial Scholarship in Photography".
Fred Schiffer died in Vancouver on November 6th, 1999, at the age of 82 years. His photographic archive has been donated to the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia.
Lit.: information from his daughter Jennifer Levine, Toronto/Canada, 2015; Fred Schiffer: Lives in Photos; Obituary; Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW): Austrian Victims of the Holocaust (Arthur, Therese, Käthe and Alice Schiffer).
Katharina Kniefacz
