We Remember the Family Batscha and the Austrian Jews!

Kladovo - Escape to Palestine>

Jewish Refugees from the Kladovo Transport

Flight, Emigration and Death

Testimony of Saraleh Batscha (Mondola), Cluj - Napoca Transylvania

63 years after... October 13th, 2004


Family Batscha, Vienna October 1938 -
Sitting to the left: (Georg) Zvi Batscha; in the middle: Father, Prof. Dr. Albert (Abraham) Batscha;
to his right: brother, (Ernest) Chaim Batscha; sitting to the right: mother, Blanka (Braca) Batscha née Haas; standing between Zvi and his father the nurse who took care of the two sons: Emma Wahler.


We remember! October 13th, 2004 (63 years later)

Eulogy Read in the Memorial Dedication Ceremony by Granddaughter Nitza Sela Batscha

To My Grandparents Whom I Never Knew...

John Hersey said: "Before you are allowed to forget you must go through the agony of remembering"...

We are standing here today not only to remember and agonize your tragic fate, but most of all to tell you how much we admire your courageous standing in this hardship of that journey, of intolerable life conditions, hanging for months and months between despair and hope, sending your beloved ones ahead to Palestine trying to save them by doing so.

Despite the terrible fact that we never had the chance to get to know you we came all this way from Zion, the land you dreamed of to tell you how much we love you.

There is only one picture left from you, but from the day we were born you became part of us. On Birthday parties, Bar-Mitzvas, Weddings your spirits were and are always with us. It is this feeling of longing, longing for a kiss, a hug of grandma and grandpa that any child deserve having that become so intolerable. Dear Grandpa Albert, Dear Grandma Blanka, in my night dreams and my day dreams I waited and longed for the moment and day to come when I would be able to say the word Grandpa and Grandma. Standing here today I know this day will never come.

In your name let me pray that no child on this earth, will have to go through such agony. Grandparents and grandchildren are the most natural cycle of human lives.

Rest in peace here on this land of Yugoslavia where you seeked a free way to reach to your beloved sons in Israel. You will be forever in our heart and soul.

DEAR GRANDMA, DEAR GRANDPA - I OWE YOU MY LIFE!

Nitza

October 2002

Let me tell you few words about my grandfather.

With scholarship at Oxford Dr. Albert Batscha completed his studies and back in Vienna he became a Professor for languages at the Academy of Commerce known as the Handelsakademie.

He was an officer at the Austrian army and during World War I he was captured by the Russians and kept in prison. He was twice wounded for which he was awarded with medals.

Paradoxically it was an Austrian battalion who murdered him and the rest of the men on the Kladovo Transport on October 1941.His beloved wife, Blanka my grandmother, was murdered with the other women and children by gas few months later.

My grandfather Albert was a great Zionist. He was an activist at the General Zionist Movement and a close friend of Teddy Kollek family.

He knew Anna Freud and consulted in her in certain issues of the upbringing of his sons.

He was born in Czechoslovakia, October, 1885.

Murdered brutally October 1941 and he is only 56.

Last Updated October 13th, 2004