Family Card - Person Sheet
Spouses
Notes for Susanne Friedländer
{geni:about_me} http://www.starnewsgroup.com.au/story/13934
SUSANNE Wright saw more horror and suffering in the first decade of her life than most of us will ever know.
Her family, from Vienna, was caught up in the tumult of World War II as the Third Reich swept into Austria, an event that ever since has defined her life.
Now, more than half a century later, Susanne has poured childhood memories into her first book: A Ballad by Johannes Brahms.
Susanne, being the daughter of a Jewish father and Catholic mother, was classified as a mischling – a person with one Jewish parent – and the book chronicles her experiences as a child and a Jew, in a time when these facts alone placed her in great peril.
The initial spark which led Susanne to commit her memories to paper came from meeting other survivors at the Holocaust Museum, in Elsternwick.
“I met many survivors and we talked about our experiences. That inspired me to start writing about my own heritage.”
Susanne worked through some of her ideas with other survivors before joining a writing group in Williamstown, and said bringing her ideas to a new, non-Jewish audience resulted in the book improving dramatically in its early stages.
Susanne was used to writing in her professional life but said moving away from the hard facts of her childhood and into the emotional terrain of memory was a difficult transition.
“I had never written about personal things that were very painful.
“Suddenly, the writing was focusing on me and not some anonymous third person.
“I had to examine those things that most people keep buried deep inside.”
Some days at the keyboard were more difficult than others and Susanne was constantly confronted with the need to tell her story as truthfully as her memory would allow.
“Some things flowed easily, like my happy childhood memories. But when it came to those more painful things it became difficult not to just put the facts down and add some real emotion.”
Recording vivid and painful memories was hard enough but Susanne soon realised she had another problem – a six-month black hole.
Like a missing reel of film, Susanne found that all memory from the period immediately after she fled her family home had been erased.
“You either remember things absolutely crystal clear or you don’t remember them at all.
“There is an absolute blank. I know what happened before and I know what happened afterwards,” she said.
“I can hear my father playing the piano. I can remember playing with my brother, and then there is nothing.
“I know logically that events must have happened, but it was as though I wasn’t there.
“Children were supposed to understand and children were supposed to forget.
“It was not until 40 years later that people even started talking about it.”
A Ballad by Johannes Brahms is available at Readings Bookshops, Seagulls Bookshop and from the author at sue@aesoftware.com.au.
SUSANNE Wright saw more horror and suffering in the first decade of her life than most of us will ever know.
Her family, from Vienna, was caught up in the tumult of World War II as the Third Reich swept into Austria, an event that ever since has defined her life.
Now, more than half a century later, Susanne has poured childhood memories into her first book: A Ballad by Johannes Brahms.
Susanne, being the daughter of a Jewish father and Catholic mother, was classified as a mischling – a person with one Jewish parent – and the book chronicles her experiences as a child and a Jew, in a time when these facts alone placed her in great peril.
The initial spark which led Susanne to commit her memories to paper came from meeting other survivors at the Holocaust Museum, in Elsternwick.
“I met many survivors and we talked about our experiences. That inspired me to start writing about my own heritage.”
Susanne worked through some of her ideas with other survivors before joining a writing group in Williamstown, and said bringing her ideas to a new, non-Jewish audience resulted in the book improving dramatically in its early stages.
Susanne was used to writing in her professional life but said moving away from the hard facts of her childhood and into the emotional terrain of memory was a difficult transition.
“I had never written about personal things that were very painful.
“Suddenly, the writing was focusing on me and not some anonymous third person.
“I had to examine those things that most people keep buried deep inside.”
Some days at the keyboard were more difficult than others and Susanne was constantly confronted with the need to tell her story as truthfully as her memory would allow.
“Some things flowed easily, like my happy childhood memories. But when it came to those more painful things it became difficult not to just put the facts down and add some real emotion.”
Recording vivid and painful memories was hard enough but Susanne soon realised she had another problem – a six-month black hole.
Like a missing reel of film, Susanne found that all memory from the period immediately after she fled her family home had been erased.
“You either remember things absolutely crystal clear or you don’t remember them at all.
“There is an absolute blank. I know what happened before and I know what happened afterwards,” she said.
“I can hear my father playing the piano. I can remember playing with my brother, and then there is nothing.
“I know logically that events must have happened, but it was as though I wasn’t there.
“Children were supposed to understand and children were supposed to forget.
“It was not until 40 years later that people even started talking about it.”
A Ballad by Johannes Brahms is available at Readings Bookshops, Seagulls Bookshop and from the author at sue@aesoftware.com.au.