Eric Kruh Collection

Erich Kruh was born in Vienna, Austria on February 19, 1922, the son of Isak Kruh and his wife Anna, née Schaerf. The family lived in an apartment in Vienna's first district along with one of Anna Kruh's sisters. Isak Kruh owned a wholesale textile business. From 1932 to 1939 Erich attended the nearby Franz Josef Realgymnasium (also called Realgymnasium I Stubenbastei), until he was expelled from school in June 1938 after the 1938 Anschluss (annexation) of Austria. Erich and his parents were forced to scrub off signs near their home. His father's business was taken over and in January 1939 Erich went to England.

In England Erich Kruh lived with a Jewish family in Leeds and worked in a textile factory. Due to being an "enemy alien" in May 1940 he was placed in a British internment camp in Huyton, England, then sent to a camp on the Isle of Man and later, to Sherbrooke, Canada. He was interned until July 1942. After having passed Canada's university entrance examination, he then studied at McGill University in Montreal and later, at the University of Toronto. While in Canada he became a Canadian citizen.

In 1946 he graduated from the University of Toronto with First Class Honors, the Van der Smissen scholarship for the student with the highest standing in German, and a Bachelor of Arts in Language and Literature. He continued his education in the United States at the University of Chicago; after his emigration to the United States he changed his given name to Eric. In 1947 he received a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago in Modern Language and Literature and completed examination requirements for doctorates in Modern European History at the University of Chicago and in Germanic Literature and Philology at the University of Pennsylvania.

In his early academic career Eric Kruh taught at several universities. He taught modern languages at the University of Chicago as a teaching assistant and examiner from 1947-1949 and was examiner in German reading for doctoral candidates from 1948-1950. From 1947-1953 he was an instructor and assistant professor in modern languages and literature at Roosevelt University in Chicago, teaching German, French, and European Literature. At Indiana University he was adjunct instructor in German during summer semesters from 1948-1950. From 1953-1959 Eric Kruh left academia to be an advertising writer and advertising manager for the Allstate Insurance Company's head office in Chicago. In 1959 he took a position as associate professor in modern languages and European history at New England College in New Hampshire, where he taught German and French language and literature as well as modern European History. He was also Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences. From 1960-1962 he was an adjunct instructor in the Department of Germanic Literature and Philology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Concurrently he was an assistant professor of modern languages at Villanova University from 1960-1964, where he taught graduate and undergraduate courses in German language and literature.

In 1948 Eric Kruh was able to bring his parents from Switzerland, where they had fled, to Toronto. There his father opened a jewelry shop. While Eric was teaching at the University of Chicago, he met Elizabeth (Betty) Ant, a librarian at the university's Harper Library. They married on March 10, 1953.

In 1964 Eric Kruh began teaching at Long Island University's Southampton College in New York, where he would remain until his retirement. Eric and Betty lived in East Hampton, New York. From 1964-1968 he was assistant professor of modern languages and literature. In 1968 he became associate professor. He taught courses in German and French language and literature, European literature survey courses, modern Russian literature and culture, contemporary German literature, Faust, eighteenth and nineteenth-century European history, modern German history, and other subjects. From 1979 to 1987 he conducted travel courses in European countries for Southampton students. While at Southampton College he participated in various faculty committees and held several administrative positions, including chairman of Modern Languages and Literature department from 1964-1971, President of the Long Island University Senate from 1973-1974, and Director of the Division of Humanities from 1980-1992.

In September 1992 Eric Kruh became Professor Emeritus. Although in his retirement he continued to give lectures in German literature and history at New York University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and at the Amagansett Free Library. He also gave lectures on German and French literature at the Center for Creative Retirement.

Elizabeth (Betty) Kruh died in April 2000. Although she and Eric never had children, the couple were animal lovers and had multiple rescued cats and dogs during their years in East Hampton. They also frequently travelled to Europe. After Betty's death Eric met Jean Hoffmann at the organization Community without Walls.

In the late 2000s Eric participated in the second phase of the Austrian program, A Letter to the Stars (Briefe an den Himmel), the largest Holocaust research project in Austrian schools. In the second phase Austrian students corresponded with former Austrian Jewish residents to have personal encounters from which they would write life stories of their subjects.

Eric Kruh died in 2011 in East Hampton.