| Born: | 11-04-1918 |
| Faculty: | Philosophical School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Anna Christine BERGSON-SONNENBERG (later: LETHBRIDGE), born on November 4th, 1918 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Moedling/Lower Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of Dr. jur. Egon Felix Bergson-Sonnenberg (1878-1967, lawyer) and Therese, née Schey (1880-1968), lived in Vienna's 18th district, Haizingergasse 29/4, In the summer of 1936, she had passed the high school leaving certificate (Reifepruefung/Matura) at the Doeblinger Maedchen-Realgymnasium in Vienna's 19th district, Billrothstrasse 32, and began to study the University of Vienna in the fall term of 1936/37. She was last enrolled in the spring term of 1938 at the Philosophical School in the 2nd year of her studies and took courses in History and Art History (she had already submitted her admission papers to the Department of Art History in the fall term of 1936/37).
Under National Socialism, after the Anschluss, she was forced to abandon her studies and leave the University of Vienna for racist reasons.
The entire family - Protestant AB - was persecuted for racist reasons after the "Anschluss" and had to flee Vienna.
Her father, who had received his doctorate in law from the University of Vienna in 1903 and had a law office in Vienna's 1st district, Strauchgasse 1-3, was struck off the list of lawyers for racist reasons after the Nazis seized power, arrested on June 30th, 1938, and spent a long time in pre-trial detention in Hamburg before he and his wife Therese managed to emigrate to Kent, England, on February 10th, 1939. They remained in England until they received their visas for the USA in London on November 22nd, 1939 and emigrated from Liverpool/England on the SS Lancastria to New York/USA in March 1940. From then on they lived at 80 Haven Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, NY/USA until they died in 1967 and 1968 respectively.
Her older sister Maria Bergson-Sonnenberg (b. 1914 in Vienna) also emigrated to New York/USA, worked as an actress and lived with her parents in Manhattan until she later married Thomas L. Brunner (b. 1912).
Her older brother Anton, later: Anthony Henry Bergson (1911-1994), also emigrated to the USA.
Anna Christina Bergson-Sonnenberg also had to flee Vienna and was still able to emigrate to Great Britain, where she settled permanently in London and did not continue her emigration to the USA like her parents and siblings. She married the British naval officer Michael Hugh Lethbridge (1916-2011) in Marylebone, London/England, in 1945 and lived at 158 Hamilton Terrace, London/England. They had two children. Little else is known about her further life and career to date.
Anna C. Lethbridge, née Anna Christine Bergson-Sonnenberg, died in London in 2007.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1937-1939; Archive of the Art History Department at the University of Vienna (Originalmappe des II. Kunsthistorischen Instituts, Personaldatenblatt Bergson-Sonnenberg Christine); Vienna City Archive (WrStLA)/Historical Central Registration of Viennese inhabitants; Austrian State Archive OeStA/AdR/E-uReang/VVSt/VA 41362, 25723, OeStA/AdR/E-uReang/Hilfsfonds/Abgeltungsfonds 5279, 5832; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2010, 89; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.com; Schey Family Geneology.
Herbert Posch
