Metadata: Estate of Ruzena Biehal
Collection
- Country:
- Switzerland
- Holding institution:
- Archives of Contemporary History at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiv für Zeitgeschichte der ETH Zürich
- Postal address:
- Hirschengraben 62, CH-8092 Zurich
- Phone number:
- +41 44 632 40 03
- Web address:
- https://www.afz.ethz.ch/
- Email:
- afz@history.gess.ethz.ch
- Reference number:
- NL Ruzena Biehal
- Title:
- Estate of Ruzena Biehal
- Title (official language):
- Einzelbestand Ruzena Biehal
- Creator/accumulator:
- Biehal, Ruzena
- Date(s):
- 1940s/2000
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 0.02 shelf metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection documents the life story of Ruzena Biehal as a refugee during National Socialism and as a political victim of communist repression in Prague.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Ruzena Biehal (née Sonnenschein) was born on 16 August 1922 as the daughter of Jewish parents. She worked as a secretary and editor in Urmin (district of Nitra), Czechoslovakia, after attending schools in Nitra and Prague. In her youth, she was a member of the “Hashomer Hatzair“-Roth Association. In 1942, she escaped deportation and hid during the rest of the war with various farmers. After the war, she studied in Prague and married the diplomat Martin Biehal in 1947. Between 1948 and 1951, the Biehals lived in Moscow, London, and Warsaw. In 1952, political trials were staged in Czechoslovakia. Ruzena Biehal’s father-in-law was arrested and her husband was dismissed from the diplomatic service. Between 1953 and 1968, the Biehals suffered from reprisals as Ruzena Biehal worked as a secretary and editor. In 1968, the Biehals fled Czechoslovakia via Vienna to Switzerland. Ruzena Biehal died in Zurich on 8 April 2013.
- Subject terms:
- Personal records
- Refugees
- Finding aids:
- An online finding aid is available.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://onlinearchives.ethz.ch/
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Severin Holzknecht; Jewish Museum of Hohenems; 2019