Metadata: Estate of Hersz Wermus
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 Hersz Wermus
- Title:
- Estate of Hersz Wermus
- Title (official language):
- Einzelbestand Hersz Wermus
- Creator/accumulator:
- Wermus, Hersz
- Date(s):
- 1940/1997
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 0.05 shelf metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection of Hersz Wermus contains personal documents from the internment and refugee period in Switzerland (partly photocopies), family history, treatises on the philosophy of science and Wermus’s memoirs (1926-1946) as well as correspondence. It relates primarily to the Second World War, antisemitism and experiences as internees and refugees in Switzerland.
- Archival history:
- The collection was transferred to the AfZ (Archives of Contemporary History) in 1995.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Hersz (Henri) Wermus, a mathematician and philosopher of science, was born in Warsaw on 11 January 1919. In 1939/40, he served in the Polish army in France and later was interned in Switzerland until 1945 at the university camp in Winterthur. From 1946 to 1948, he lived in Zurich as a recognised refugee. He studied mathematics at the ETH and became assistant to Ferdinand Gonseth, professor of the philosophy of science. He earned his doctorate at the ETH Zurich in 1961. In 1946, he married Nelly Kaegi (see EB Nelly Wermus-Kaegi). In 1958, he was naturalised. After 18 months of unemployment, he moved to Geneva in 1949. From 1949 to 1959, he worked as a teacher of mathematics at the "Institut Central ORT" in Anières (Geneva) and from 1958 to 1967, as a professor of mathematics at the "Ecole Technique Supérieure" and the "Collège du Soir". In 1967/68, he worked as a visiting professor at Pennsylvania State University and from 1969 to 1974, he held a teaching position at the "Institut Rousseau des Sciences et d'Education" in Geneva. Wermus also studied psychology under Jean Piaget (mathematical implementation of Piaget's theories) and worked at the "Centre International de Psychologie Génétique". From 1974 to 1977, he was a full professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education of the University of Geneva. He retired in 1984. Wermus was also a member of the committee of the "International Commission for the Promotion of Mathematics Education", the "Swiss Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science", the "International Group for the Psychology of Mathematical Education", the "European Society for the Study of Cognitive Systems" and the "Association pour la recherché cognitive" in Orsay (France).
- Access points: locations:
- Switzerland
- Subject terms:
- Internment
- Memoirs
- Personal records
- Refugees
- World War II
- 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
