Laying of Memorial Stones for my grandmothers in Vienna.

Stolpersteine, a dream realizes itself

“My feet find unerring the paths my mother, my father, my grandparents, cousins, 

great aunts, uncles took.  Feet need no translation.  They relax, recognize.  They know homeland.

I vow to get a Stolperstein for grandma Klara, whose name I hold between the arms of my first and last name.” (excerpt from The Lost Notebook) to be published and launched April 3, 2025 in Vienna)

Years ago began the process to lay memory stones at the last addresses: 

For my mother Else Pappenheim and her mother Edith, where they lived until the Nazi regime forced them out. 

Luckily my mother came to the USA, but her mother had to return to Germany where she joined her sister and brother-in-law in Bonn.  

Where Veronal took them into eternal sleep.  Together.  Rather than be degraded, then murdered in a camp.

Klara Frischauf, my paternal grandmother, and her sister. Frieda Altmann, friends with Edith lived in another neighborhood. 

Taken, put into a collection apartment, then shoved into sealed train wagons to be shot naked into a killing pit outside Riga, Latvia.  

I know nothing about the other murdered tenants, Rosa Blum and Georg Pollack, residents of the same buildings, but honor them too.

Poetry reading 8 November, 2024 at WUK, Vienna, Austria

I will read in English, three poems from my book, They Clasp my Hand, translated by Erich Karner and poems to appear in Book II, The Lost Notebook Spring 2025 follow by book III, There&Here translated by Astrid Nischkauer

8.11. book@wuk IV / WSB Studio 19h

Elisabeth Frischauf (USA) zuletzt: “They Clasp My
Hand. Die meine Hand ergreifen.” Theodor Kramer
Gesellschaft, liest neue Gedichte, die Astrid Nischkauer
auch in Übersetzung liest. / Sibyl Urbancic und Johann

Kneihs lesen Melitta Urbancic "Unter Sternen" und
"Ein Lesebuch" Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft

Afterwords followed by a lively Q&A.

One of my ceramic poem boxes

6 November in Vienna, Austria, unveiling of memorials ; see below invitation.

I, the grandaughter and great niece, will read poems from my book They Clasp My Hand. There are two sites we will honor:

The first where my grandmother Edith Pappenheim and my mother were herded away from. My mother was able to come to the US. My grandmother eventually committed suicide with relatives in Bonn, Germany rather than being dragged to a concentration camp.

The second, my grandmother Klara and her sister Frieda’s last address beore being taken to a holding apartment, shipped to Riga, Latvia and shot into a killing pit,

From the poem “From Ashes” translated by Eich Karner:

Forged from the burnt dead—the great funeral pyre Europe

my stomped, crumpled grandmothers

my mother's hope, scorched crusts.

Countless relatives deleted—

once somewhere, now wisps dangling from the family tree.

Einladung

zur Enthüllung eines Steines der Erinnerung in der Josefstadt

„Geschaffen aus den verbrannten Toten-

dem großen Verbrennungsofen Europa,

meine getretenen, gebrochenen Großmütter,

die Hoffnung meiner Mutter,verbrannte Krusten.

Endlos viele Verwandte ausgelöscht-

Einmal irgendwo, jetzt Fetzen am Familienbaum.“

Elisabeth Frischauf

Mittwoch 6. November 2024,11:00 h

vor dem Haus Lederergasse 22, 1080 Wien

Es sprechen:

Elisabeth Frischauf, Enkelin

Irmtraut Karlsson

für den Verein "Steine der Erinnerung Josefstadt

Danach findet eine weitere Enthüllung 

vor dem Hause Penzingerstraße 69,1140 Wien um 13 Uhr statt.

My poem, "Equilibrium," appears in translation by Astrid Nischkauer

In this edition of Zwischenwelt esplores the aftermath of Hamas brutal attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. The magazine is in German. The poem will appear in my bilingual edition volumes subsequent to They Clasp My Hand, with Book 2: The Lost Notebook, scheduled for Spring 2025