Viennese districts: 20th District

John Fischer was born as Hans Fischer in 1909 in Vienna, where he lived in the 20th district and worked in a metalware factory. He was arrested during a visit to the dentist and imprisoned in the Rossauer Barracks, the Gestapo jail on Karajangasse and then in the Landesgericht. After his release he fled with his wife first to France and from there to the USA in February 1940. After his military service he worked as a salesman. At the time of the interview, Fischer lived in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

Josef Kohn was born in Vienna in 1925 and lived with his parents in the 20th district. After the Anschluss he joined Hashomer Hatzair and was able to flee Austria as part of the so-called "Kladovo transport". Kohn belonged to a small group who survived and arrived in Palestine in March 1941. His parents did not survive. Kohn was later active in the Kibbutz Gan Shmuel in various areas of work before he dedicated himself to working with young people, something that led him to live for several years in Vienna in the 1970s. He now lives in Israel.

Otto Nagler was born in Vienna in 1920 and lived with his family in the 20th district. He attended elementary school there and - during the period of the Anschluss - high school. He was able to flee to Palestine in 1939 due to his membership in a zionist youth organization. His parents were able to escape to Italy, where they lived during the war. After Nagler finished his studies at the Technion in Haifa and completed his military service he went on to work in the field of irrigation and as a development aid worker, in both Israel and throughout the world. He now lives in Israel again.

Kurt Schoen was born in Vienna in 1915. He lived with his family in Vienna's 20th district and studied medicine at the University of Vienna. After the Anschluss, Schoen discontinued his studies. He fled to the Netherlands in 1938, but was sent back to the German Reich by the police. After two weeks imprisonment he was able to escape to the Netherlands again and from there travelled to the USA. Except for a short period in Zurich where he continued his medical studies, Schoen has lived ever since in New York, where he ran a medical laboratory.

Fred Sterzer was born in 1929 and lived with his family in Vienna's 20th district. In 1942, the family was sent to Theresienstadt and he was later deported with his mother and his diabetic brother to Auschwitz. He eventually ended up in a subcamp of Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp, from where he was liberated in May 1945. His parents were murdered. Sterzer returned to Vienna where he finished high school and then emigrated with his brother to the USA in 1947. There, he studied physics and later founded a research laboratory. At the time of the interview he was living in Princeton, New Jersey. 

Alisa Tennenbaum was born Liselotte Scherzer in Vienna in 1929 and grew up in Vienna’s 20th district. Following the “Anschluss” in 1938 she had to leave school and her father was arrested and imprisoned in Dachau Concentration Camp. After his release, he was able to flee to Great Britain and Tennenbaum followed him on a Kindertransport in August 1939. She lived in a children’s hostel in Windermere before joining her father in Glasgow in 1945. Her mother stayed in Vienna and survived several camps. In 1949 the family emigrated to Israel. At the time of her interview, Tennenbaum lived in Beit Herut.