Elisabeth Blum (Benjamin)

Elisabeth BLUM, born on February 1^st, 1911 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of Friedrich Blum (merchant, 1882-1942) and Rosalia Blum, née Spitzer (1884-1942), lived with her family in Vienna's 2^nd district, Wohlmutstrasse 27/6. She had passed her school-leaving examination ("Matura/Reifepruefung") at the "Bundesrealgymnasium" in Vienna's 8^th district on July 4^th, 1931, and had then enrolled at the School of Philosophy (Humanities and Sciences) in the fall semester of 1931/32. She was enrolled finally in the fall term 1937/38 at the Philosophical School in the 7^th and last year of her studies in Chemistry.

She was unaffiliated with any religion ("konfessionslos"), but after the "Anschluss" in 1938 she was forced to abandon her studies as a "Jew" and to leave the University of Vienna. But after a long period of uncertainty she had been able to register for the final examinations ("Rigorosen") in chemistry on July 13^th, 1938 and her dissertation: "Untersuchungen ueber den Bernstein" ("Studies on Amber") (supervisors: Prof. Ernst Spaeth, Prof. Anton Kailan) had been approved on October 10^th, 1938, and so she had been able to sit for the first viva on October 21^st, 1938 (examiners: Prof. Ernst Spaeth, Prof. Anton Kailan, Prof. Egon Schweidler) and the second viva voce ("einstuendiges Rigorosum" or "Philosophicum") on October 27^th, 1938 (examiners: Prof. Robert Reininger, Prof. Otto Tumlirz). After passing these examinations and after a long period of uncertainty, she had been able to complete her studies and to graduate on October 31^st, 1938, amidst numerous symbolic discriminations in the context of a "non-Aryan graduation", while at the same time being banned from working in the entire German Reich.

She had to flee Austria and was still able to emigrate to Great Britain. Her father's general store in Vienna's 2^nd district, Grosse Mohrengasse 25, was "Aryanized" (expropriated), her parents Ferdinand Blum (1882-1942) and Rosalia Blum (1884-1942) and her younger sister Elfriede (1918-1942) were forcibly relocated to a Jewish collective apartment in Vienna's 2^nd district, Ferdinandstrasse 4, and were deported from there to Izbica/Poland on May 15^th, 1942 - no one from this transport survived. Her younger brother Otto Leopold Blum (b. December 13^th, 1912, converted from Judaism in 1925) was able to escape to Czechoslovakia in 1938, where he re-converted to Judaism again on October 7^th, 1938, in Brno. Neither he nor her brother Alfred Hans Blum (b. September 7^th, 1916) survived Nazi perpetration after being drown back at the Swiss border.

Elisabeth Blum moved to London, met Fritz Benjamin, a refugee from the German Reich, who had studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe (he was interned as an "enemy alien" in England on the Isle of Man after the outbreak of World War II). They married and had a son. Elisabeth Blum could not work scientifically in England, but she spent her life devoted to doing technical and scientific translations.

She died in England in 1978/79.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1931-1938, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") PHIL 1938 No. 2859, final examination registry and file ("Rigorosenprotokoll und -akt") PHIL No. 14556; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 365; POSCH 2009, 367; DOEW 2001; DOeW|Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance, database Austrian Victims of the Holocaust (2020); information from her granddaughter Louise Benjamin, Luxembourg 03/2021.

Herbert Posch