| Born: | 12-11-1915 |
| Faculty: | Philosophical School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Franziska KARPELES (later Weinfeld [Weldon]; Frances Hoffman), born on December 11th, 1915 in Vienna/Austro-Hungarian Empire (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of Georg Karpeles (merchant, 1880–1939) and Elsa ("Elly"), née Neumann (1894–1942), lived in Vienna's 9th district, Garnisongasse 1. On June 19th, 1934, she had successfully passed the school-leaving examination ("Reifepruefung"/"Matura") at the Girls' high-school Vereinsrealgymnasium für Maedchenunterricht VIII (Vienna's 8th district, Albertgasse 38) and began studying at the University of Vienna in the fall term of 1934/35. She was last enrolled in the spring term of 1938 at the Philosophical School in the 4th and last year of her studies and took courses in English language and literature Studies and in History. She did not plan to become a secondary school teacher, but rather a journalist or to build an international career.
She registered for the final exams on February 18th, 1938, but was no more allowed to pass them after the "Anschluss" in March 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.
She had to flee from Vienna, but was able to marry her fiancé Gustav Richard Weinfeld (1914–1975, industrial chemist) on July 13th, 1938, in the Vienna City Temple: The couple arrived by plane in Zurich to relatives of the husband, and then continued to London/England with the aim of emigrating to Australia. After a few months, they managed to travel from Liverpool on the SS Duchess of Bedford to Montreal, Quebec/Canada on November 11th, 1938, and then from Vancouver, British Columbia/Canada via Honolulu, HI/USA and New Zealand to Sydney, NSW/Australia, where they arrived on December 13th, 1938.
Her parents had gone to Prague/Czechoslovakia after the "Anschluss", where they had a branch of their business, but were unable to emigrate in time. Her father died there. Her mother was deported from Prague to Theresienstadt [Terezín/Czech Republic] on May 12th, 1942 and on May 17th, 1942 further to "unknown" – presumably Auschwitz [Oświęcim/Poland] – and was murdered. Her brother Robert Kent (1919–1994) was able to emigrate to Great Britain in time and served in the British Army. He was stationed in Essen/Germany after the end of the war, married a German and moved back to England with her when their first child was born.
Franziska Karpeles, now Frances Weinfeld (Weldon), was never able to complete her studies in Australia, but was able to earn money by giving lessons and doing embroidery, and her husband was able to find work as a chemist in industry. Both were considered enemy aliens after the outbreak of war, but were not interned and were also soon granted Australian citizenship and lived and worked in Sydney, NSW for a long time. They changed their last name to "Weldon" and their son Anthony Weldon, later a pediatrician, was born in 1942.
Frances Weldon moved to Melbourne, VIC/Australia in 1957 and was married in second marriage to Erich Hoffmann (1907–1981), a work colleague of her first husband, who also had to flee Vienna in 1938 but could not emigrate until 1939. She also visited Vienna with him again for the first time after his retirement in 1972.
Frances Hoffman, née Franziska Karpeles, widowed Weinfeld/Weldon, died on October 2nd, 1997 in Melbourne, VIC/Australia.
She is commemorated at the University of Vienna in the "Memorial Book for the Victims of National Socialism at the University of Vienna in 1938" (2009) and at the "Memorial to the History Students and Teachers of the University of Vienna Expelled under National Socialism | When Names Shine" (2022).
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1937–1938, final examination file and registry ("Rigorosenakt und -protokoll") PHIL 14221; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 413; USC|University of Southern California – VHA|Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, Interview 36702 (September 21, 1997); POSCH/FUCHS 2022, 113–114; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.de; www.geni.com.
Herbert Posch
