Metadata: Estate of Emma Ott
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 Emma Ott
- Title:
- Estate of Emma Ott
- Title (official language):
- Nachlass Emma Ott
- Creator/accumulator:
- Ott, Emma
- Date(s):
- 1907/2011
- Language:
- German
- Danish
- French
- English
- Extent:
- 0.4 shelf metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- In addition to numerous biographical documents, the collection contains material relating to Ott's work as a nurse at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene (Gabon) and at various institutions of the Swiss Red Cross Children's Aid Association in southern France. In addition to contemporary reports from Lambarene and France, this includes documentation material, including press articles, publications, etc. The main part of the estate consists of five personal photo albums with approximately 500 photographs. Particularly noteworthy are the numerous photographs from the Château de La Hille children's home in Montégut-Plantaurel.
- Archival history:
- In 2005, Emma Ott handed over the first documents to the AfZ (Archiv für Zeitgeschichte). The contact was arranged by Peter Märki and Helena Kanyar Becker. The estate of Emma Ott is an important addition to other holdings of former employees of the Children's Aid Association preserved in the AfZ, including Friedel Bohny-Reiter, Elisabeth Eidenbenz, Anne-Marie Im Hof-Piguet, Elsbeth Kasser, Elsa Lüthi-Ruth, Ruth von Wild. The estate was partially ordered by Emma Ott. Her order and the original titles were partially preserved.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Emma Ott, a nurse, was born in Winterthur on 20 November 1907 and died in Bern on 15 May 2011. She was the daughter of Emil Albert Ott and Maria Barbara Schwenk. After secondary school, she was employed between 1921 and 1927 as a domestic helper in Winterthur, Schönenwerd (SO) and Lucerne. In 1926, Ott applied in vain for a job as a helper in the hospital founded by Albert Schweitzer in Lambarene, in what was then French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon). In 1928, she did several weeks of international civilian service (SCI) in Liechtenstein. Beginning in August 1928, Ott was employed by a family of pastors in Rapperswil and after their move to St. Moritz in 1929 she worked here. From 1932 to 1936, she trained as a nurse at the Engeried School for Nurses in Bern. At the end of 1936, Ott began working as a nurse in Lambarene. In spring 1939, she returned to Switzerland and worked in the Tiefenau Hospital in Bern. During the war she served as a paramedic nurse in the Women's Aid Service (FHD). From May 1942, she worked as a nurse for the Children's Aid of the Swiss Red Cross in southern France, among other things. At the end of 1943, Ott took over the management of the children's colony Château de La Hille in Montégut-Plantaurel (France) and subsequently - until January 1946 - that of the Maternité Suisse in Montagnac (France). For a short time (until May 1946) she was in charge of the Maternité, which had moved from Montagnac to Pau (France), on behalf of the Schweizer Spende (Swiss donations to war-affected persons). After her return to Switzerland, Ott worked again at the Tiefenau Hospital in Bern until her retirement in 1972.
- 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; 2020