Page - 274 - in Wien und die jüdische Erfahrung 1900-1938 - Akkulturation - Antisemitismus - Zionismus

Michaela Raggam-Blesch Sonia Wachsteins Eintritt in das bür- gerlich geprägte Hietzing Gymnasium ini- tiierte ebenfalls einen Konflikt zwischen der Welt ihres dem Judentum verbunde- nen Vaters und des säkularisierten Umfel- des der Schule. In ihren Memoiren illust- riert sie diesen Prozess : „In fact, with my entry into Gymnasium, a conflict arose in my heart and soul, connected with this problem. In school, amongst my friends, most of whom were also of Jewish origin, a slight anti-Semitism handed down by their families was obvious, in tune with that of the rest of the population. Of course, like the rest of the people, their animosity was directed at the ,Ostjuden‘, the Jews who had fled from the eastern provinces of the old Empire and had set- tled in Vienna, particularly in the second district, ,Leopoldstadt‘. […] They served well as scapegoats in the rising economic misery and despair. As for me, I fought on two sides. When my friends in school in the least identified with these prejudices, I could not let it pass. I tried to stand up for the ,Polish‘ as they were called and revealed that my father and his relatives were also of Galician origin. […] My sensitivity to the existing prejudices among my school friends and my readiness to go to battle was turned completely around at home with my family. As I so greatly identified with German literature and was appreciative of the language I was born into, I thought I had to resist my father’s extreme concentra- tion on the Jews.“ Sonia Wachsteins Identifikation mit ihrem ostjüdischen Hintergrund angesichts der abwertenden Zuschreibungen ihrer Schulkolleginnen zeugt vom Einfluss ihres Elternhauses, in dem eine stark positiv gelebte jüdische Identität vermittelt wurde. Gleichzeitig wandte sie sich im familiären Kontext gegen die Haltung ihres Vaters, dem jüdischen Historiker Bernhard Wachstein. Ihre Identifikation mit den deutschen Kulturidealen sowie ihr späteres Germanistik- und Anglistikstudium können daher in gewisser Weise auch als Antithesen zur Allgegenwart jüdischer Themen in ihrem El- Sonia Wachstein, Hagenberggasse 49, S. 24–25. Abb. 3: Die Geschwister Max und Sonia Wachstein, um 1914. Bildquelle : James Monaco (2001 Estate of Sonia Wachstein)