Estate of Friedel Bohny-Reiter

Collection

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

Scope and content:: The biographical material includes Friedel Bohny-Reiter’s naturalisation in Kilchberg, her training as a children's nurse and her honours and awards for her commitment during the Second World War. The main focus is on the documentation of Friedel Bohny-Reiter's work. The publication of her diary "Vorhof der Vernichtung" from Rivesaltes 1993 is documented by correspondence with private persons and publishers, corrections and newspaper articles. The resulting film "Le Journal de Rivesaltes" and its correspondence are also part of the collection. In addition to these more recent materials, the collection also contains identity cards, letters and documents from the period in Rivesaltes itself. Especially impressive is the photo album of Friedel Bohny-Reiter from Rivesaltes, which can be used digitally in the Archive for Contemporary History. A few photos were taken by the photographer Paul Senn and are also available in Elsi Ruth's photo album. There are also letters from former internees to Friedel Bohny-Reiter. The collection is rounded off by documentation material that illuminates the Rivesaltes internment camp and the Elne Mothers' Home in more detail. It also contains correspondence from Friedel Bohny-Reiter’s husband August Bohny-Reiter. He represented his wife after her death at public appearances and honours.

Archival history:: The collection was transferred in 2009 by Helena Kanyar, who put the documents in order before handing it over. The private photo albums were delivered in 2010.

Administrative/biographical history:: Friedel Bohny-Reiter was born in Vienna on 20 May 1912 and died on 18 December 2001. In 1914 she was evacuated with other children from the capital to Melk an der Donau. His father died during the war and she returned to Vienna in 1919. She arrived in Switzerland with a children's train organised by the Swiss Aid Committee and attended school while she was with the foster family Nägeli-Zöbeli in Kilchberg ZH. After finishing school Bohny-Reiter trained as a children's nurse. In 1940/1941 she worked in Florence and joined the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft für kriegsgeschädigte Kinder" after that. She arrived at the internment camp Rivesaltes near Perpignan on 12 January 1941. In November 1941 she rescued numerous internees from deportation to Auschwitz. In France she met her later husband August Bohny, director of the Chambon-sur-Lignon children's home. In 1942 Rivesaltes was closed. From January 1943 she was the director of the Abric House in the Chambon-sur-Lignon children's home and married August Bohny in March 1944. The couple returned to Switzerland after the liberation of France in December 1944, where she became mother of four children (Jörg, born 1945; Verena, 1946; Hans Rudolf, 1948, and Christoph, 1951). In 1990 she was honoured in Yad Vashem as "Righteous of the Nations" and in 1994 she was awarded the Moral Courage Award.

Author of the description:: Severin Holzknecht; Jewish Museum of Hohenems; 2019