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Eva Dukes Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 25476

Scope and Content Note

This collection contains material relating to the personal and professional activities of Eva Dukes. It includes incoming personal correspondence from 1938 to 1943, from just before her flight from Austria to her settling in the United States. It also includes materials about Dukes's teenage years as a student at the Schwarzwaldschule in Vienna, such as correspondence from the 1990s with fellow alumnae and a typescript by Dukes entitled "The Last 5th R.G. and Bits and Pieces of Schwarzwaldschule" (1988), which consists primarily of brief autobiographies of about a dozen Jewish former students, and also has some information about the school.

Professional materials relating to Eva Dukes's work as a writer, researcher and translator include correspondence about her search for two favorite children's books from her youth, Jüdische Kindermärchen (1932) by Ilse Weber (née Herlinger) and Das verschlossene Buch; juedische Maerchen (1925) by Irma Singer (aka Irma Miriam Berkowitz). Also found here are typescripts of selected translations from these books into English, as well as extensive correspondence between Dukes and Singer, after Dukes discovered Singer living in Israel in the 1970s. This collection contains other correspondence and publications that appear to relate Dukes's professional life, including a 1947 publication by Romanian-Jewish artist Auren Marculescu (Aron Marcovici) entitled "Ghetto si Lagar," containing essays about Marculescu and reproductions of his woodcuts depicting life in concentration camps.

Dates

  • 1925-2001
  • Majority of material found within 1971-1973

Creator

Language of Materials

This collection is in English and German, with one item in Romanian.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open to researchers.

Access Information

Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.

Biographical Note

Eva Dukes née Altmann was born in December 18, 1923 in Vienna, Austria. Until 1938, she attended Realgymnasium at the Schwarzwaldschule, the first school in Austria to offer Matura (advanced high school diploma) to girls. The school was founded by women's education pioneer Eugenia Schwarzwald. In Vienna, Dukes was involved in the swimming club Haschachar Akiba Hakoah, as well as a Zionist youth group.

In 1939, at age 15, Dukes fled Vienna, and via Hungary, Switzerland, and London immigrated to the United States in August 1940. She graduated from Hunter College (B.A. in chemistry, minor in physics and math) in 1945, and after a brief stint as a perfumer at Henri Robert, she settled in New Jersey and began her long career as a technical writer, editor, and translator. Otmar B. Parolla was her first husband. On November 7, 2012, Dukes died in Monroe Township, New Jersey.

Extent

0.25 Linear Feet (1 box)

Abstract

This collection contains material relating to the personal and professional activities of Eva Dukes. It includes personal correspondence from 1938 to 1943 and materials about Dukes's teenage years as a student at the Schwarzwaldschule in Vienna. Professional materials relating to her work as a writer, researcher and translator include correspondence about her search for two favorite children's books from her youth, Jüdische Kindermärchen (1932) by Ilse Weber (née Herlinger) and Das verschlossene Buch; juedische Maerchen (1925) by Irma Singer (aka Irma Miriam Berkowitz). Also found here are typescripts of selected translations from these books into English, as well as extensive correspondence between Dukes and Singer, after Dukes discovered Singer living in Israel in the 1970s.

Arrangement

This collection was arranged into two series, personal and professional. Within each series, folders are arranged alphabetically.

Related Material

The LBI Archives holds, as part of the Austrian Heritage Collection, a questionnaire completed by Eva Dukes. Most of the information in that interview is incorporated into the Biographical Note above.

The LBI Library holds a copy of the book of Jewish fables that Dukes translated in the early 1970s, Das verschlossene Buch; juedische Maerchen (1925), by Irma Singer.

Separated Material

The pamphlet "Gisi Fleischmann and the Jewish Fight for Survival" by Joan Campion was removed to the LBI Library.

Processing Information

Duplicate photocopies were removed. A few yellowing items were interleaved with acid-free paper.

Title
Guide to the Eva Dukes Collection Undated, 1925-2001 , bulk 1971-1973 AR 25476
Author
Processed by Kevin Schlottmann and Eva Englander
Date
© 2012
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.
Sponsor
as part of the Leon Levy Archival Processing Initiative, made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation

Revision Statements

  • May 22, 2014 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.

Repository Details

Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States