Ernst Papanek Papers

Period (1857-) 1900-1973 (-2005)
Total size   2.75 m.
ConsultationNot restricted

Biography

Pseudonym: Ernst Pek; born in Vienna 1900, died in Vienna 1973; youth leader, pedagogue and education reformer; active in the Verband der Sozialistischen Arbeiterjugend Deutschösterreichs (SAJDÖ) from 1919 and its president 1933-1934; member of the City Council of Vienna 1932-1934; member of the executive committee of the Socialist Youth International (SYI) 1934-1939; fled to Czechoslovakia 1934, where he supported the illegal Revolutionäre Sozialistische Jugend (RSJ) in Austria; editor of the International Pedagogical Information (IPI) 1936-1938; fled to France 1938; worked for the Organisation de Santé et de l'Éducation (OSE), which was founded by Russian Jews and smuggled children out of Germany, housing them in castles in France 1938-1940; fled to the United States 1940; worked for the Children's Aid Society; active in various Austrian emigrant organizations and from 1941 member of the American Socialist Party; in 1945 director of the Child and Youth Project Department of the Unitarian Service Committee (USC) and later director of American Youth for World Youth (AYWY); in 1947 head of the Brooklyn Training School for Girls and from 1949 head of the Wiltwyck School for Boys in New York.

Content

Appointment diaries 1934-1946; files containing correspondence with and other documents concerning family members and friends, including Claude Brown, Alex Goldstern, Ludwig Greve, William Kilpatrick, Grete Wasservogel and others 1920-1985 (-1995); identity papers and other personal documents 1900-1973; manuscripts of `Out of the Fire', `The Children of Montmorency', `The Austrian School Reform' and many other publications (1924-) 1941-1971, n.d.; copies of published articles and documents concerning his publications 1941-1971 (-1980); files on the International Pedagogical Information 1936-1939; on the children's homes of the OSE and the evacution of these children to the USA 1939-1941, with letters and memoirs by former refugee children 1945-1995; on his work for the USC and his role as Child Projects Director in postwar Europe 1946; on his work as director of the AYWY 1945-1950; on his school directorship in New York 1949-1962; on his visits to Israel, Japan and Sweden 1966, 1968; on the Nazi persecution of Austrian Jews and Socialists and the Austrian resistance 1936-1945 (-1981) and files containing correspondence of comrades, including letters by Friedrich Adler, Hugo Breitner, Wilhelm Ellenbogen and Otto Leichter 1940-1945; manuscripts of the (unpublished) autobiography of Helene Papanek and transcripts of interviews with her 1978-1979; copies of periodicals and clippings concerning Papanek 1946-1981.

Processing information

Inventory made by Kristine Ann CasaBianca in 1999; list of the accrual by Tiny de Boer in 2006