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Oral history interview with Walter Gelnay

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1999.A.0122.822 | RG Number: RG-50.477.0822

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    Oral history interview with Walter Gelnay

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Walter Gelnay, born on December 8, 1910 in Vienna, Austria, discusses his childhood and life in Vienna; the family's move to Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) in 1914; their return to Vienna in 1922; working with his father in his father's various business enterprises in different countries; his father's flight to Beirut, Lebanon; moving to Prague, Czech Republic, where he worked for an export business; the closing of the business; his flight from the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939 to the Middle East, settling first in Baghdad, Iraq, and then in Beirut, Lebanon, where foreign nationals were being recruited by the Allies for military service and where he hoped to join the Czech Brigade; his experiences in Beirut; being placed on the military reserve list; working in a hotel; the installation of the Italian Armistice Commission in Lebanon after the fall of France in 1940; fears that Beirut would be administered by Nazi German officials; his illegal flight in 1941 to Palestine, where he met his father who had preceded him and was living in Haifa; his post-war experiences; his return to Czechoslovakia; and his immigration to Australia.
    Interviewee
    Walter Gelnay
    Date
    interview:  2003 February 19
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    2 videocassettes (SVHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Gelnay, Walter.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project conducted the interview with Walter Gelnay on February 19, 2003. The interview was received by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives Branch in December 2003.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:47:02
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn515874

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