Ludwig Bieder: correspondence and papers

This collection documents the lives of members of an Austrian Jewish family whose destinies were forever changed by the rise of Nazism. The papers date from immediately after the Anschluss until the 1950s, by which time the surviving members had settled in their newly adopted countries. The largest group of letters date from 1938-1939, after Ludwig Bieder left Austria for Switzerland and before he departed for New Zealand. The principal subjects are his desperate attempts to extricate his parents from Vienna to a safe haven; his efforts to obtain a visa for himself; and his love affair with Alice Lafitteau, widow of the Swedish ambassador to Vienna.</p><p>In addition there is correspondence from a friend, Otto Gmeiner, who was instrumental in the survival of Ludwig Bieder's parents in Belgium during the war. An English transcription of these letters can be found at 1618/5/5. </p><p>A diary survives from Abraham Bieder, father of Ludwig, who wrote it for his son, during the time when no post could leave occupied Belgium, 1618/5/3.</p><p>The contents of the individual folders reflect the original order. Ludwig (Lewis) Bieder, the depositor's father, born in Vienna in 1910, he graduated with distinction from the University of Vienna in 1935 and was appointed resident then university tutor at Vienna's Rosenhugel Hospital. In 1938, after the annexation of Austria, the hospital was taken over by the SS. All Jewish personnel were dismissed and patients forcibly discharged. Dr Bieder fled to Switzerland, where he worked in a psychiatric hospital for 15 months. In 1939 his application for an entry permit into New Zealand was accepted and he sailed for Wellington during the week that war was declared. See 1618/9 for a more detailed biography. Open