Erich (Julius / Yehuda) Diamant

Erich (Julius / Yehuda) DIAMANT, born on June 1^st, 1918 in Przemyśl, Galicia/Austro-Hungarian Empire [Poland] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Dr. iur. Gerold Diamant (1885-1930, lawyer) and Mag. pharm. Laura "Lola" Diamant (1889-1975, pharmacist), lived with his parents in Vienna's 8^th district, Lerchenfelder Strasse 44/19 from 1921 onwards, completed secondary school here, successfully passed the high school-leaving examination (Reifeprüfung/Matura) in the summer of 1936 and began to study pharmaceutics and chemistry at the University of Vienna from the fall term of 1936/37 - he was last enrolled at the Philosophical School in the 2nd year of his studies in the fall term of 1937/38.

In 1938 he was forced to quit his studies and to leave the University of Vienna for racist reason after the takeover of power of National-Socialism.

The parents came from Galicia and Bukovina respectively - mother Lola Diamant, born on December 23^rd, 1889 in Przemyśl [today Poland], father Gerold Diamant born on December 12^th, 1885 in Hadikfalva, Dornești [today Romania] - and had completed their academic education partly still in Galicia - mother Lola graduated on July 27^th, 1912 from the University of Lemberg in pharmacy as "Mag.pharm." - father Gerold studied in Vienna, where he received his doctoral degree "Dr. iur.".
At the beginning of the First World War, the mother had to flee from the hostilities in Galicia in 1914 (from September 1914 Russian siege of Przemysl, March 1915 conquest, June 1915 reconquest) to the imperial capital Vienna, where she married Gerold Diamant in 1916. Their son Erich was born shortly before the end of World War I in Przemysl, which shortly thereafter became part of the newly formed Polish Republic. The family, however, opted for Austria and remained in Vienna, and in 1921 son Erich also joined his parents in Vienna as a three-year-old, where he grew up, from 1923 with brother Walter David, and where his father Gerold worked as a lawyer and mother Laura ("Lola") Diamant as a pharmacist (initially in the Salvator pharmacy in Reichenau an der Rax, Lower Austria, later in a pharmacy in Vienna's 15^th district).

At the age of 12, Erich Julius Diamant became a half-orphan after the early death of his father in 1930; his mother became unemployed in the course of the world economic crisis in 1932, but he and his brother were able to graduate from high school. Erich Diamant became a member of the Jewish student fraternity Kadimah.

After the Anschluss, the family had to try to flee Vienna as quickly as possible, but they lacked the financial means and tried to leave the country with the help of the emigration department of the Jewish Community. In the application for assistance of May 16^th, 1938, Australia, the USA, South America or the "British Empire" (which at that time also included the Mandate Territory of Palestine) were still being considered as emigration countries, and Erich Diamant stated that he spoke German and English and that he was currently learning Spanish and Hebrew. Ultimately, he only managed to leave for Paris/France in early April 1939 with the aim of emigrating further to Palestine [Israel] on a student visa from the Hebrew University Jerusalem. He succeeded in obtaining a provisional travel document from the French side in Paris on August 29^th, 1939, and a corresponding entry visa from the British side on August 30^th, and arrived in Palestine on September 14^th, 1939, to which his younger brother Walter David was also able to emigrate.
His mother was able to leave for Great Britain in mid-April 1939 on a "domestic permit," where she lived in southern England - in the September 1939 census she appears as a domestic servant with the couple John W. (b. 1884) and Jessie M. Turner (b. 1888) at Forest Cottage, Uckfield, Sussex, she was not interned as enemy alien in England. At the end of the war, she learned that both sons had survived and was later able to emigrate to join them in Israel, where she died in Haifa on February 10^th, 1975.

It is as yet unclear whether Erich Julius/Yehuda Diamant was actually able to continue and complete his studies at the Hebrew University Jerusalem in 1939-1941, but in any case he served in the British Army from July 15^th, 1941 and applied for Palestinian citizenship on December 30^th, 1943, which he received on April 21^st, 1944.

He married in Palestine [Israel] Lucie Shulamit Neger (1912-1995), born in Rzeszów/Galicia, and they had two sons, Ariel and Gabriel Diamant.

Erich Yehuda Diamant, born Erich Julius Diamant, died on August 8^th, 1988 in Jerusalem/Israel and is also buried there at Har HaMenuchot Cemetery Givat Shaul.

Lit.: Archives of the University of Vienna/Enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1937-1938; FRITSCH 2007; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 374; www.ancestry.de; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.at.

Herbert Posch