| Born: | 01-11-1918 |
| Faculty: | Philosophical School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Hedwig BLOCKSBERG (BLOKSBERG), born on January 11th, 1918 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of Isidor (Israel Ben) Bloksberg (died 1936, goldsmith, jeweler) and Rachel/Rosa Bloksberg, née Berger (1877-1955), lived in Vienna's 7th district, Neubaugasse 36. In 1937 she had passed her school-leaving examination (Matura) at the girls' secondary school at Vienna's 6th district, Linke Wienzeile 4, and was enrolled in the fall term 1937/38 at the Philosophical School in the 1st year of her studies and took courses in German and Romance languages and literature Studies.
In 1938, after the takeover of power of National-Socialism she was forced to quit her studies for racist reason and to leave the University of Vienna.
Hedwig Blocksberg and her mother had to flee Vienna and were able to obtain visas through the Bolivian Consulate in Vienna and Hamburg, respectively, and were able to leave for La Paz/Bolivia in June 1939, where they both arrived in July 1939. From 1939 to 1942, Hedwig worked as a chamber maid and later as a housekeeper at the Hotel Sucre Palace in La Paz, from 1942 to 1946 as a private language teacher due to her good knowledge of German, English, French and meanwhile also Spanish, and from 1946 as a commercial secretary (one year each at the Herz company, at Perez Prado y Velho and at H. E. Rector, all in La Paz). She also had to maintain her destitute mother with this income. They had never applied for Bolivian citizenship and tried to return to Austria in 1949 with the help of IRO (International Refugee Organization). Although the IRO promised to pay their travel expenses and organized their return to Austria in March and April 1950, respectively, they withdrew their intention to return at the last moment, whereupon the IRO support was cancelled.
It was not until 1952 that we find both of them again in the Vienna address book, initially in Vienna's 19th district, Heiligenstädter Strasse 34, from 1954 in Vienna's 1st district, Singerstrasse 28, and it was at this address that Hedwig Bloksberg, occupation: secretary, continued to live even after the death of her mother in 1955.
Hedwig Bloksberg died at the age of nearly 81 on October 18th, 1998 in Vienna and is buried at Vienna Central Cemetery, Old Jewish Section, in the grave of her mother and maternal grandmother.
Lit.: Archives of the University of Vienna/National PHIL 1937-1938; Municipal and Provincial Archives of Vienna WStLA/2.3.3 A45, 27a; Austrian State Archives OeStA/AdR/E-uReang/Hilfsfonds/Sammelstellen A und B SSt 5074; Arolsen Archives/3.2.1.4 CM1 Ak; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 365; www.ancestry.de; www.genteam.at; www.findbuch.at; www.myheritage.at; information by courtesy of Dr. Konstanze Kropatschek, Vienna 07/2022.
Herbert Posch
