Overview
This collection of objects belonged to Lya Riley (née Kleinmann), and materialises aspects of her childhood in Austria, experiences during the Second World War (1939-1945), and life in New Zealand.
Lya Kleinmann was born in Vienna on 27 March 1921, the only child of Emil Kleinmann and Eugenie Rosenberg. Emil was a director at Anker Insurance, and the family enjoyed a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. They had a cook and a maid, all of Lya’s clothes were made by a dressmaker, and each year her parents commissioned a studio portrait of her.
The Kleinmanns were Jewish, and in the early twentieth century Vienna was an important centre of Jewish culture with 22 synagogues, over 50 prayer houses, and a range of Jewish libraries, schools, hospitals, clubs and political associations. At the start of 1938 the Jewish population of Austria was around 192,000 people – 4% of the total population – and in Vienna Jews comprised about 9% of the population. By November 1942, however, only 7,000 Jews remained in Austria. Lya’s family, and many thousands of others, were caught up in the maelstrom of war.
Intense Nazi propaganda had been circulating in Austria throughout the 1930s so when German forces marched into Austria on March 12, 1938, many citizens greeted them with enthusiastic support. Austria was incorporated into Germany the next day, and the Anschluss (union) was formalised through a plebiscite in April. Neither Jews nor Roma were allowed to vote.
Anti-Semitic actions and violence escalated quickly, and Jews were attacked, humiliated, and their businesses seized or looted. In addition, anti-Jewish legislation was quickly extended to Austria, initially focussed on expropriation and emigration. Between 1938 and 1940, 117,000 Jews left the country. Systematic mass deportations began in autumn of 1939, and thousands of Jews were deported to ghettos or concentration camps in occupied Poland, Germany and Eastern Europe where the vast majority were murdered. Concentration camps were also established within Austria, where thousands of prisoners were worked to death.
Twenty-three days after her eighteenth birthday, Lya left Vienna alone and flew to London via Rotterdam. Her mother Eugenie joined her in London late in 1939. Lya’s father Emil stayed in Vienna, possibly because he could not afford to leave or because he needed to stay for his work, and Lya never saw him again. In September 1942 he was deported to Minsk in cattle wagon Da227 and was shot four days later at Maly Trostinec. Emil lies with tens of thousands of other victims in the regenerating forest; his name, date of birth and date of death printed on a yellow notice which has been attached to a tree.
Lya and her mother Eugenie lived in Hampstead throughout the war, and Eugenie worked from home as a seamstress. Lya joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service – the women’s branch of the British Army – in 1941 and was stationed in various places around Britain. Lya returned to civilian life in 1946 and her army record notes exemplary military conduct. She was awarded the Defence Medal and War Medal 1939-1945.
After the war Lya met a Londoner named William (Bill) George Alexander Riley, who had been a foundry worker before joining the British Army in 1934 and retraining as a chef. During the war Bill was interned for three years in Singapore and Burma, and returned to London suffering from malaria. He immigrated to New Zealand in 1947 to aid his recovery, and Lya followed a year later. They were married in Dunedin on 22 October 1948 and quickly purchased an old Victorian cottage at 247 North Road.
Bill worked as a cook and as a subeditor at the Otago Daily Times, while Lya taught herself to cook and extended her skills by attending night classes at the Home Science School. Her family suggest that Lya learnt to be a New Zealander at those classes; learning how to cook and preserve the foods available in Aotearoa. Lya also learnt to sew, draft patterns and make her children’s clothing.
Lya and Bill’s first child Lysette was born in January 1950, and Peter followed in December 1951. Family life was busy and had its challenges, but Lya strove to maintain her independence. She worked briefly as a cleaner and as the diet cook at the hospital, then used her clerical skills to build a career at the Bonus Bonds Service.
Bill died suddenly in 1976 so was not able to see his family grow. Lya now has six grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Of her parents’ nine siblings, only two on each side had descendants, and Lya has by far the most. Life has not always been easy, but New Zealand has been a safe place for Lya and her family to settle.
Lya’s mother Eugenie moved to New Zealand in 1970 and was able to bring a selection of family heirlooms with her. Since Lya’s move to the Kāpiti Coast in 2020 her family have been sorting through these objects and reflecting on their history. The meaning of the objects has changed over time, as Lya’s children and grandchildren have learnt more about Lya’s story and thought about their own connections to Austria. Different members of the family also interpret the objects in different ways.
The objects in this collection allow us to tell Lya’s story of survival and independence. They also invite us to think about the role that objects play in shaping family history – what they reveal, what they obscure, and how the meanings of objects and stories change as they pass from generation to generation.
References:
- Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, Inc., n.d. History of the Austrian Jewish Community. Claims Conference website, http://www.claimscon.org/our-work/negotiations/austria/history-of-the-austrian-jewish-community/
- Neusner, J. 2001. Judaism: Emancipation. In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes. Elsevier Ebook.
- Riley, Lya, and Lyana Ross. 2021. Conversations and emails with curators Katie Cooper and Stephanie Gibson.
- Riley, Lysette and Helen Riley-Duddin, 2021. Conversation with curators Katie Cooper and Stephanie Gibson. 2 June.
- Riley, Lysette, 2021. Unpublished biography of Lya Kleinmann, born 27 March 1921 Vienna.
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. n.d. Austria. Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/austria
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. n.d. Vienna. Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/vienna
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. n.d. Anschluss. Holocaust Bibliographies. https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/anschluss
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. n.d. Antisemitism. Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism