Becoming American Becoming Ethnic

My Austrian-Italian Ethnicity

Susan Carnicelli (SUNY Binghamton 1990) My Austrian-Italian Ethnicity An four of my grandparents immigrated to the United States from Europe prior to World War II. My maternal grandparents, Erna Herzog and Eric Vogel, were born in Vienna, Austria, at the turn of the century. They married in 1934 and continued living in Vienna with no intentions ofleaving. My grandfather worked as a self-employed plumber while my grandmother worked in Gerngross, a department store in the heart ofVienna. Since my grandparents were Jewish, they began to realize the dangers of staying in Austria with the rise of Hitler in the mid1930s . But even though they were Jewish and saw a need to leave, it took a great deal of convincing from my grandmother to uproot my grandfather from Viennese culture. In fact, my grandmother .often told my mother how she had to threaten my grandfather with divorce in order to get him to leave. Finally in September ofl939 my grandparents, who were among the very last Jews to escape from Vienna, left their mothers behind and traveled to France. At this point the war had begun, so a warship escorted their passenger ship to Manhattan. At the time, neither of my grandparents could speak English, and for the first three weeks in New York they lived at the H.I.A.S.-the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. My grandfather'S brother had left Vienna several years earlier. He was one of few who obtained a visa directly from the Dachau concentration camp, where he had been placed for being a socialist. Since my great-uncle was already settled in New York, he welcomed my grandparents to live with them for a few months. 86 Susan Carnicelli Eventually they found jobs, my grandfather as a plumber and my grandmother as a seamstress. Shortly after, they found an apartment in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Slowly they began to learn English, mostly from the radio. In addition, my grandfather began to learn Yiddish at work although my grandmother never caught on. Although my grandparents lived in a Jewish neighborhood, these people were all American-born, with ancestors primarily from Russia and Poland. In my grandparents' household only German was spoken. So when my mother was born in 1943, she learned German as her first language . My grandmother once told my mother that her Jewish American friends in Brooklyn often warned my grandparents not to speak German on the street because people would think they were the "enemy." My grandparents often were nervous in public, and did not speak to each other at all until they returned to their apartment. So I am sure, although my grandparents lived among friends, they felt much discomfort in America. They saw themselves as Austrians and were devastated that they had to leave due to their religion. After a few years ofliving in the United States, my grandfather decided to search for other Austrian immigrants. He became founder and president of the Vienna Club. This was a purely social organization with approximately sixty members. Each year they held gatherings, dances, and New Year's Eve parties. This gave my grandparents an outlet ofAustrian Jewish friends. They reminisced about old times and indulged in delicious Viennese cuisine, often prepared by my grandmother. Another outlet for my grandparents was the Catskills. Each summer my grandparents and my mother spent a month in Fleischmanns and Pinehill, New York. Here Austrian, German, and Hungarian Jews gathered in resorts , speaking only German and reliving their European days. Since my mother was always involved in these cultural gatherings, she was constantly reminded that her culture was that ofthe Vienna ofFreud, Mahler, and the Hapsburg Empire. But her neighborhood in Brooklyn was not ethnically similar to her own background. These differences in ethnicity and class status caused my mother to feel slightly detached in her youth. Over time her uneasiness disappeared. My paternal grandparents also immigrated to the United States during the same era, but their reasons for coming to America were quite different. My father's father, Anthony Carnicelli, and my father's mother, Julia Romanelli , were born in Agropoli in the province ofSalerno, Italy. This area is rich in history. It is known as the Siren Land ofantiquity, and my grand- Eric and Erna Vogel with their daughter, Joan, Brooklyn, 1944. 88 Susan Carnicelli parents' town is only five or six miles from the magnificent Greek temples ofPaestum, located at one...