Susan Graham Collection

Susan Graham was born as Herta Pisker on December 27th, 1921 in Vienna, Austria as the only child of Franz Pisker (born in 1885 in Hardegg, Austria) and Stefanie Pisker (née Kraus, born in 1897 in Vienna).

Susan’s father Franz was born to Jacob Pisker and Regina Pisker (née Wottitzki). Franz Pisker married Stefanie Pisker (née Kraus) in 1919, the daughter of Bernard Kraus and Hanna Kraus (née Reiter). Franz and Stefanie owned a dry goods store in Bruennerstrasse 33 in Vienna’s 21st district (Floridsdorf), where they also lived. Their daughter Susan attended Hauptschule in Floridsdorf and afterwards Handelsakademie (business school) in the 1st district until the Anschluss. Franz Pisker was arrested and taken to a prison in Vienna's 8th district and was deported to the Dachau concentration camp and later to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Susan and her mother had to move to her maternal grandparents’ house in Pfluggasse 6/14 in Vienna's 9th district.

Stefanie's brother, who had immigrated to the United States in the 1920s, provided affidavits for Susan and her cousin Paula when they were 17 and 14 years old. They left Austria in 1938 traveling from Genoa on the Italian ocean liner "Rex" to New York. With the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) they could get to Chicago, where Susan's uncle Rudolf Kraus and his wife Kaete lived. Susan became the governess of a Jewish family in Highland Park, Illinois, took classes in drawing, and attended evening school to become a sales clerk.

Around 1938 Franz and Stefanie applied for American citizenship and waited for about four years for the affidavits to arrive from their relatives in America and to overcome other bureaucratic obstacles. In circa 1939 Susan’s father Franz got released from the Buchenwald concentration camp and moved back to his family who was then residing in a "Heim" in Gaensbachgasse in Vienna’s 10th district. For a short time they were allowed to move out of the Heim before they were deported to the Jewish ghetto Opole in Lublin, Poland in 1941, where Franz worked as a pedicurist. Franz was later, together with his wife, deported to the Sobibor extermination camp in 1942, where both were killed.

At 22 Susan married John Graham in New York City. John Graham was born in 1923 as Hans Heinz Gruenwald in Vienna. His parents were Hildegard Gruenwald (née Kollmann, born in 1896 in Vienna, Austria) and Bruno Gruenwald (born in 1889 in Vienna, Austria), who married in 1920 in Floridsdorf, Austria. They owned a delicatessen store at first which later became a drug store, but had to sell it because of the economic depression. The family later owned a second hand furniture store. John studied electrical and mechanical engineering in Vienna, Austria, until the Anschluss. He immigrated to the United States in 1939 via Belgium and England. Upon his arrival, Graham worked in menial jobs as they became available. His parents were able to immigrate to America as well. Susan and John have two children, Carrie-Jane Ester Chein (née Graham, born in 1946 in New York City) and Brenda Silver (née Graham, born in 1952 in New York City).