Jenny Weleminsky (néeElbogen; 12 June 1882 – 4 February 1957)[1][2] was a
German-speaking
Esperantist and
translator who was born in
Thalheim,
Lower Austria[3] and brought up there and in
Vienna. Some of her translations of works by
Franz Grillparzer and other notable Austrian writers were published in the literary magazine Literatura Mondo (Literary World), which became home to an influential group of authors collectively known as Budapeŝto skolo, the
Budapest school of Esperanto literature.[4]
Early life and education
Jenny Elbogen was born into a
Jewish family on 12 June 1882 at Schloss Thalheim,[note 1] Lower Austria, the youngest child of
Guido Elbogen (1845,
Jungbrunzlau – 1918, Schloss Thalheim) who became President of the Anglo-Austrian Bank in
Vienna,[5][6] and his wife Rosalie (Ali) (née Schwabacher; 1850, Paris – 1940,
Sartrouville,
Île-de-France),[7] whom he married in 1868 in
Paris. She had two sisters (Antoinette (1871–1901) and Helene (1878–1882), who died in infancy); and a brother (
Heinrich, also known as Henri; 1872–1927).[2]
Politically she had very determinate and fixed views, many inherited from her father. Jenny Elbogen was an ardent
Habsburg monarchist and wished to see the Habsburg heir,
Otto von Habsburg, restored to the Austrian throne after the
Second World War. However, she was also an internationalist, as demonstrated by her enthusiasm for Esperanto. She opposed the
Zionist movement's call for the establishment of a
homeland for the Jewish people and ceased all contact with two of her daughters after they left Austria to live in
Mandatory Palestine.
Her father Guido Elbogen had donated money towards the construction of a new synagogue (built in 1913) in
Sankt Pölten.[9]
Facing
Nazi persecution for being Jewish, they found sanctuary in 1939 in the
United Kingdom[3][12] where she continued to translate books into Esperanto, wrote poetry and taught English to other refugees.[12]
After the
Second World War and the death of her husband, Jenny Weleminsky spent several years in Vienna, returning eventually to London, where she died of
breast cancer on 4 February 1957, aged 74.[2]
She and her husband had four children together. Two of their daughters emigrated in the early 1930s to Mandatory Palestine where they took new names – Eliesabeth (born 1909) became Jardenah, and Dorothea (born 1912) was known as Leah. Their eldest daughter, Marianne (born 1906), and their son, Anton[note 2] (born 1908), moved to Britain just before the Second World War.
^Nagel, Bernhard; Nautz, Jürgen P (1999). Nationale Konflikte und monetäre Einheit: ein Plädoyer für die Währungsunion (in German). Vienna:
Passagen Verlag. p. 92.
^"Thalheim". Burgen-Austria.com ("Castles in Austria"). 17 September 2005. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
^Zemmin, H; Wille, K (October 1926). "Beitrag zur Tuberkulosetherapie mit Tuberculomucin (Contribution to tuberculosis therapy with tuberculomucin)". Beiträge zur Klinik der Tuberkulose und Spezifischen Tuberkulose-Forschung (Contributions to Clinical Tuberculosis and Tuberculosis – Specific Research). 64 (5–6): 679–682.
doi:
10.1007/BF02093958.
ISSN0341-2040.
S2CID841950.