Paul and Johanna Löwy: personal papers

This material is held atThe Wiener Holocaust Library

Reference
- GB 1556 WL1740
Dates of Creation
- 1911-1978
Name of Creator
- Löwy - Paul - 1913-1978
Language of Material
- German English Hungarian
Physical Description
- 1 folder

Scope and Content

This collection contains the personal papers of Austrian Jewish refugees Paul Löwy (1740/2- and his mother Johanna Löwy (1740/1-)who emigrated to the UK in 1939. Included are birth, marriage and death certificates, certificates of qualifications, business licence, certificates of residence ('Heimatschein'), passports and certificates of naturalisation. Also included are a letter sent to his aunt from Buchenwald concentration camp and letters sent to his mother just after his release from Buchenwald concentration camp and from internment on the Isle of Man (1740/2/19-21).

Administrative / Biographical History

Paul Stephen Löwy (later Lowy) was born in Vienna in 1913 as the only child of Alfred and Johanna (née Müller) Löwy. His father died in 1915 due to complications with his war injury. Johanna Löwy was a dressmaker and continued the family clothing company after her husband's death. In April 1939 she went to Switzerland under the pretext of a business trip to flee anti-Jewish persecutions. She emigrated from there to England two months later. Johanna was supported by an English Jewish family in Leeds who she worked for as a domestic assistant before moving to London to work for various clothing firms.

Paul graduated in law from the University of Vienna. As he was involved with the Socialist students' movement he was arrested and sent to Buchenwald in 1938. He was released in March 1939 and managed to flee to England in April 1939. He was interned on the Isle of Man in July 1940 and released on medical grounds three months later.

Arriving in London he moved in with his mother and lived with her until she died in 1971. None of their extended family members had survived the Holocaust. Paul and his mother became British citizens in 1949. He retrained to be a certified accountant and opened his own accountancy company after the Second World War. Later on he started an import-export business in electronic valves and transistors. Paul got married in 1964 and died in London in 1978.