From Austria to the Churchill Society: A Profile of Professor Manfred Weidhorn
Suzanne Mazel
Issue date: 12/21/09 Section: Features
Look beyond the classroom setting to the person teaching the class. Who do you see? Just another professor, or a person? While sitting in English class with Dr. Manfred Weidhorn, it's easy to get lost in the literature and forget the figure, but doing so would be missing out on the opportunity to learn about an incredibly fascinating life.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Weidhorn left at age seven in March of 1938, after Germany's annexation of Austria, the Anschluss. He traveled with his mother through Belgium, France, Spain and Cuba on the way to America.
It's "difficult to remember my thoughts and feelings at the time," says Weidhorn, as he was so young at the time. He does recall, however, that he "worried about things."
One story Dr. Weidhorn does remember involved " a lot of drama" between his mother and her sister, having to do with taking along his mother's parents. "There was only so much room in the truck and the decision was made not to take the grandparents along," he recalls.
His mother and her sister went separate ways when his aunt traveled with her husband's family and arrived in America at a different time. Later, once in America, "they did not talk to each other for a while because the grandparents remained in Belgium and were taken away to Auschwitz," recounts Weidhorn.
Dr. Weidhorn arrived in America in November 1941, a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He lived in Manhattan's Lower East Side before settling in Boro Park. He and his late wife then moved to Fair Lawn, NJ, where they raised two sons. Dr. Weidhorn currently resides there.
Drawn to the field of English "by process of elimination… because I'm not too good with other languages," Dr. Weidhorn received his undergraduate degree and doctorate at Columbia University, with a master's degree from Wisconsin. Before obtaining the master's degree, Dr. Weidhorn spent time stationed in Germany with a peacetime army. His Ph.D. is in the field of seventeenth century non-dramatic English literature, a genre including Milton, John Donne and Francis Bacon.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Weidhorn left at age seven in March of 1938, after Germany's annexation of Austria, the Anschluss. He traveled with his mother through Belgium, France, Spain and Cuba on the way to America.
It's "difficult to remember my thoughts and feelings at the time," says Weidhorn, as he was so young at the time. He does recall, however, that he "worried about things."
One story Dr. Weidhorn does remember involved " a lot of drama" between his mother and her sister, having to do with taking along his mother's parents. "There was only so much room in the truck and the decision was made not to take the grandparents along," he recalls.
His mother and her sister went separate ways when his aunt traveled with her husband's family and arrived in America at a different time. Later, once in America, "they did not talk to each other for a while because the grandparents remained in Belgium and were taken away to Auschwitz," recounts Weidhorn.
Dr. Weidhorn arrived in America in November 1941, a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He lived in Manhattan's Lower East Side before settling in Boro Park. He and his late wife then moved to Fair Lawn, NJ, where they raised two sons. Dr. Weidhorn currently resides there.
Drawn to the field of English "by process of elimination… because I'm not too good with other languages," Dr. Weidhorn received his undergraduate degree and doctorate at Columbia University, with a master's degree from Wisconsin. Before obtaining the master's degree, Dr. Weidhorn spent time stationed in Germany with a peacetime army. His Ph.D. is in the field of seventeenth century non-dramatic English literature, a genre including Milton, John Donne and Francis Bacon.
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