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| Ernst Borinski at Tougaloo College |
Mathematician readers of this blog are probably familiar with the growth of U.S. universities during and after the Second World War. A major source of this growth was the war and related crises. Many European academics, especially Jews, fled Europe and took positions at US universities. The most famous such academic is probably Albert Einstein. Another well-known academic who left Europe for the US is French mathematician André Weil. Weil has a beautifully written account of his experience in his autobiography The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician.
If you've read Weil autobiography, you may remember that his experience did not go well. He worked at Lehigh University, and of that experience, he wrote, "The only thing expected of me and my colleagues – who were totally ignorant as far as mathematics went – was to serve up predigested formulas from stupid textbooks and to keep the cogs of this diploma factory turning smoothly." Lehigh University is not even named in the autobiography because Weil resolved to never again mention the school's name after leaving.
Weil was placed at Leigh with help from the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a humanitarian organization. The IRC formed a special committee, the American Committee for Emigre Scholars, Writers and Artists, that worked with universities and European refugees to make job placements.
Weil and Einstein were both internationally-renowned academics, but the IRC also aided many other less well-known academics. Especially interesting are the Jewish academics who were placed in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). They are featured in the book From Swastika to Jim Crow by Gabrielle Simon Edgcomb. The book was later made into a documentary film (with the same name) by Pacific Street Films.
The film makers of From Swastika to Jim Crow were motivated by a desire to address rising tensions between African Americans and Jews in New York City. A good way of doing this, they thought, was to publicize cooperative relations between the two communities at HBCUs during 1940s and 1950s. The film focuses on Jewish professors like, for example, Ernst Borinski who worked at HBCUs in the Deep South, especially those worked at HBCUs for long period and were active in the civil rights movement.
In this blogpost, I want to discuss the experience of mathematician Simon Grünzweig (later Green). His experience differs from the experiences of people like Borinski in that he worked at an HBCU outside the South and had a less positive experience.
Simon Grünzweig was born Vienna, Austria in 1907. In Vienna, he graduated from gymnasium in 1928 (at age 21) and then studied mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna. He passed the state exam (Staatsprüfung) in actuarial science in 1931 and the state exam for teachers (Lehramtsprüfung) in 1932. He then taught at a college preparatory high school (a gymnasium) and worked as an assistant for Hans Thirring, a theoretical physicist at the Institute for Mathematical Physics at the University of Vienna.
Grünzweig left Austria in 1938. This was a difficult time for Austrian Jews as this was the year of the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria into Germany. The Anschluss marked the beginning of a massive increase in state oppression and harassment of Jews. Even people who just supported Jews faced difficulties. While not Jewish, Hans Thirring had published a book on Einstein's theory of relativity and was an avowed pacifist. All this was enough that the government forced him into retirement although he was only 50 years old.
Grünzweig was one of over 100,000 Austrian Jews (out of an estimated total population of 181,882) who fled the county. Grünzweig first left for Finland, making him one of roughly 500 Jews to flee to that country. He stayed in Finland until 1944. I have been unable to find information about Grünzweig's activities in Finland, but he was there during a volatile time. The year after Grünzweig moved there (in 1939), the Soviet Union invaded Finland. The two countries reached a peace agreement in 1940, but war broke out again a year later, and this time Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany. Despite the alliance, Finland was a place of relative safety for Jews. Eight Jewish refugees were deported to Germany in 1942, but their deportation was met with nationwide protests which brought deportations to an end. In 1944, military victories by the Soviet Union forced Finland to accept a peace agreement. That year Grünzweig left the county for Sweden.
Sweden remained neutral during the Second World War and accepted thousands of Jewish refugees, especially refugees living in Denmark, Norway and Finland. In Sweden, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (a New York based Jewish relief organization) helped Grünzweig find suitable employment. He worked as a mathematician at the Meteorological Department at Uppsala University, as a researcher at the Royal Telegraph Office in Stockholm, at the L. M. Ericsson Telephone company, and at an insurance firm. He remained in Sweden until the summer of 1947 when he immigrated to the United States.
If you've read Weil autobiography, you may remember that his experience did not go well. He worked at Lehigh University, and of that experience, he wrote, "The only thing expected of me and my colleagues – who were totally ignorant as far as mathematics went – was to serve up predigested formulas from stupid textbooks and to keep the cogs of this diploma factory turning smoothly." Lehigh University is not even named in the autobiography because Weil resolved to never again mention the school's name after leaving.
Weil was placed at Leigh with help from the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a humanitarian organization. The IRC formed a special committee, the American Committee for Emigre Scholars, Writers and Artists, that worked with universities and European refugees to make job placements.
Weil and Einstein were both internationally-renowned academics, but the IRC also aided many other less well-known academics. Especially interesting are the Jewish academics who were placed in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). They are featured in the book From Swastika to Jim Crow by Gabrielle Simon Edgcomb. The book was later made into a documentary film (with the same name) by Pacific Street Films.
The film makers of From Swastika to Jim Crow were motivated by a desire to address rising tensions between African Americans and Jews in New York City. A good way of doing this, they thought, was to publicize cooperative relations between the two communities at HBCUs during 1940s and 1950s. The film focuses on Jewish professors like, for example, Ernst Borinski who worked at HBCUs in the Deep South, especially those worked at HBCUs for long period and were active in the civil rights movement.
In this blogpost, I want to discuss the experience of mathematician Simon Grünzweig (later Green). His experience differs from the experiences of people like Borinski in that he worked at an HBCU outside the South and had a less positive experience.
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| Simon Grünzweig in 1954 |
Grünzweig left Austria in 1938. This was a difficult time for Austrian Jews as this was the year of the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria into Germany. The Anschluss marked the beginning of a massive increase in state oppression and harassment of Jews. Even people who just supported Jews faced difficulties. While not Jewish, Hans Thirring had published a book on Einstein's theory of relativity and was an avowed pacifist. All this was enough that the government forced him into retirement although he was only 50 years old.
Grünzweig was one of over 100,000 Austrian Jews (out of an estimated total population of 181,882) who fled the county. Grünzweig first left for Finland, making him one of roughly 500 Jews to flee to that country. He stayed in Finland until 1944. I have been unable to find information about Grünzweig's activities in Finland, but he was there during a volatile time. The year after Grünzweig moved there (in 1939), the Soviet Union invaded Finland. The two countries reached a peace agreement in 1940, but war broke out again a year later, and this time Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany. Despite the alliance, Finland was a place of relative safety for Jews. Eight Jewish refugees were deported to Germany in 1942, but their deportation was met with nationwide protests which brought deportations to an end. In 1944, military victories by the Soviet Union forced Finland to accept a peace agreement. That year Grünzweig left the county for Sweden.
Sweden remained neutral during the Second World War and accepted thousands of Jewish refugees, especially refugees living in Denmark, Norway and Finland. In Sweden, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (a New York based Jewish relief organization) helped Grünzweig find suitable employment. He worked as a mathematician at the Meteorological Department at Uppsala University, as a researcher at the Royal Telegraph Office in Stockholm, at the L. M. Ericsson Telephone company, and at an insurance firm. He remained in Sweden until the summer of 1947 when he immigrated to the United States.
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| Grünzweig arrived in the US aboard the S.S. Veendam From Ancestory.com |
Grünzweig arrived in New York City by ship in July 1947. His arrival marked his successful escape from European anti-Semitism, but he faced considerable obstacles to setting up a new life for himself. He was 40 years old, stateless (his citizenship had been stripped by the National Socialist government), and spoke limited English. However, he was able to find an apartment on the Upper West Side and spent time at Brooklyn College, familiarizing himself with teaching in the US. The following blogpost will explore what happened next.
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