Bearing Witness Across Generations: The Austrian Heritage Collection at 30

The Austrian Heritage Collection (AHC) is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Established through the collaboration of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY), the GEDENKDIENST association, and the Leo Baeck Institute New York, Austrian volunteers have been traveling to New York every year since 1996. Since then, the AHC has pursued the goal of documenting the history of Austrian-Jewish emigrants who fled to North America during the years of Nazi rule over Europe.

Thirty years after its founding, 57 different Gedenkdienst volunteers have conducted more than 1,000 oral history interviews. More than 4,000 questionnaires have been returned, and numerous contemporary documents have been collected. The voices of many people who for a long time—particularly in their country of origin, Austria—found little or no public recognition have reached a wider audience through this project. Their stories are also carried forward by the volunteers serving in the Gedenkdienst program.

With the passing of the last emigrants and survivors—what is often referred to as the “end of the era of eyewitnesses”—the AHC is facing a new challenge. Since 2025, it has already become the reality for Gedenkdienst volunteers to interview primarily the children, nephews, and nieces of survivors and emigrants—the so-called second generation. While this will significantly and sustainably change the project in the future, these individuals also bring new perspectives. For this reason, the 30th anniversary of the Austrian Heritage Collection is not only a moment for celebration, but also a time for reflection.

Nina Glueckselig, Leonie Eidinger, and Beatrice Segal: their parents, uncle, or aunt had fled from Austria and found a new home in the United States and Canada. These four members of the second generation tell the stories of their parents and relatives. They speak about their own histories, reflect on the significance of bearing witness, discuss the role of the second generation, and consider the future of the Austrian Heritage Collection.

The event is taking place in cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY).

About the speakers:

Nina Glueckselig - born in 1956 in Washington Heights, New York, is a retired nurse, social worker, and jewelry designer who researched the experiences of children of Holocaust survivors for her thesis.

Her parents, Leo and Ida Glueckselig, met while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. After a failed escape attempt, Leo witnessed Kristallnacht before emigrating to the United States with his brother and later served in the U.S. Army in the Philippines. Ida fled under an assumed name to Hungary and eventually returned to Poland; after the war, Leo located her through the American Red Cross. Leo went on to work as a graphic designer and illustrator in New York and was part of the Oskar-Maria-Graf Stammtisch, with his artwork exhibited in the US and Austria since 1999.

Listen to the interview with Leo Glueckselig conducted by Martin Horváth in 1997.

Listen to the interview with Nina Glueckselig conducted by Noel Kogler and Pia Maurer in 2025.

Leonie Eidinger - daughter of Sidi Shernofsky and Manny Brecher, born in 1954 in Montreal, Canada, is a clinic coordinator for an ophthalmic in-home service for seniors.

Following the November pogrom of 1938, Sidi’s father was interned in Dachau and Buchenwald and released after the family secured visas to Shanghai. In 1939, Sidi and her parents traveled via Genoa to Shanghai, where her mother died shortly after their arrival. Sidi and her father were later forced to move to the Shanghai Ghetto in the Hongkou District, while she attended school outside the ghetto and her father worked as a jeweler. In 1947, they emigrated to Montreal via San Francisco and New York.

Listen to the interview with Sidi Shernofsky conducted by Emma Schrott in 2018.

Beatrice Segal - a clinical social worker and therapist, was born in New York City in 1962 to book editor David Segal and author Lore Segal.

Lore Segal was born in Vienna in 1928 and was sent to England on a Kindertransport after the Anschluss, where she lived with several families before reuniting with her parents. She later studied English literature in London, lived briefly in the Dominican Republic, and immigrated to the United States in 1951. She went on to teach creative writing at various American universities and became a well known author.

Lore Segal was interviewed for the Austrian Heritage Collection twice.
Listen to the interview with Lore Segal conducted by Klaus Fiala in 2008.

Listen to the interview with Lore Segal conducted by Miriam Bonaparte and Kevin Gheorghe in 2023.

Listen to the interview with Beatrice Segal conducted by Pia Mauerer and Noel Kogler in 2025.

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