| Born: | 04-22-1915 |
| Faculty: | Philosophical School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Lizzy RAPP (married name: BAUER), born on April 22nd, 1915 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of Eugen Rapp (editorial journalist, deceased in 1935) and Marie Rapp, née Beiczek, and lived in Vienna's 2nd district, Sebastian-Kneipp-Gasse 3/17. and took courses in Art History. From the fall term of 1934/35 she was enrolled at the Philosophical School and attended lectures in art history. At the same time, she also attended the Academy of Fine Arts on Schillerplatz (General School of Painting). She was last enrolled in the fall term of 1937/38 at the Philosophical School in the 3rd year of her art history studies.
In 1938, although she was of "altkatholisch" faith, she was forced to abandon her studies under National Socialism after the Anschluss for racist reasons and leave the University of Vienna as well as the Academy of Fine Arts.
She had to flee Austria and emigrated to Great Britain with her mother in 1938 with a domestic permit, so they both had to work as maids in the beginning. In May 1940, she married her childhood friend Joe Bauer in London, with whom she then emigrated to the USA. They lived in the USA and had two children, Ron and Judy, and four grandchildren.
She died on May 17th, 2006 in Washington/USA.
Today, the Leo Baeck Institute in New York has several autobiographical texts on her student days, her experiences with National Socialism in Vienna, her emigration to England and her time in the USA (Lest we forget The Nazi Era, Sneaker and high heels, Boat Tour, The trip through the Balkans), as well as a long biographical interview at the USC Shoah Foundation/Institute for Visual History and Education, University of Southern California, which can be viewed via the library server of the University of Vienna (here).
Since 2008 her name is mentioned at the monument "Denkmal für Ausgegrenzte, Emigrierte und Ermordete des Kunsthistorischen Instituts der Universität Wien" at the Campus of the University of Vienna (court 9).
The exhibition "Ausgegrenzt, Vertrieben, Ermordet" (2010) at the Department of History of Art of the University of Vienna is dedicated to the memory of Lizzy Rapp and 20 other former art history students of the University of Vienna.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/Enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1937-1938; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 358; USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, University of Southern California, Interview 20182 (New York, 14. Oktober 1996); Denkmal/Ausstellung "Wiener Kunstgeschichte gesichtet" 2008; Ausstellung "Ausgegrenzt, Vertrieben, Ermordet" 2010; Verena Pawlowsky, Die Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien im Nationalsozialismus, Vienna 2015, 55, 98; NS-Zeit.akbild.ac.at (2015); Verena Pawlowsky, Vom Dienst enthoben, vom Studium ausgeschlossen. Maßnahmen gegen Beschäftigte und Studierende der Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien 1938–1945, in: Johannes Koll, es., "Säuberungen" an österreichischen Hochschulen 1934–1945 und die Folgen, Vienna, Cologne & Weimar 2017, 309–344, 337; Beatrix Bastl, Die jüdischen Studierenden der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien 1848–1948, Hamburg 2019, 204f.
Herbert Posch
