Illich family activities in 1939
Creator(s)
- Ellen R. Illich (Camera Operator)
- Yvonne Illich
Biographical History
Ellen (Maexie) Regenstreif Illich (1901-1965) came from a family of converted Sephardic Jews who had settled in Germany. Her industrialist father, Fritz (Pucki) Regenstreif (1868-1941), had a lumber business in Bosnia where he owned a sawmill at Zavidovic and an Art Nouveau villa on the outskirts of Vienna in Pötzleinsdorf built by Friedrich Ohmann. Piero Ilic (1890-1942) came from a landed family in Dalmatia, Yugoslavia with property in Split and extensive wine and olive oil producing estates on the island of Brac. Ellen and Piero married in 1925 and established a home in Split. There was a resurgence of anti-foreign and anti-Jewish sentiment in Yugoslavia, so in 1932, Ellen returned to her father's villa in Vienna with their three children: Ivan (1926-2002), Michael (Micha) (b. 1928), and Alexander (Sascha) (1928-2009). Piero died of natural causes in Split in July 1942 (the boys never saw their father after they moved to Vienna). After the death of Fritz Regenstreif on May 8, 1941, the splendid home was taken by the Nazis in a forced sale, and Maexie moved into a pension in Vienna with the children. In Nazi Austria, Maexie was considered an ethnic Jew although she was a baptized Christian, and the children were classified as half-Jewish. In 1942, they made their way to Florence by way of Split, where they lived for three months. Later, Maexie made her way to the United States, where she died in 1965.
Scope and Content
Family activities in the year 1939. Introduced with German titles throughout, some are comical. Frame line of the opening scenes are off. The three Illich boys pull their cousin Hanni and their grandfather in a sled on the snow on New Year's morning in 1939. In the Third Poetz Revue, one of the twins plays the guitar and sings for the camera (the first revue after Marion Stein's family fled Austria). Play-acting in costume. 02:37:54 (B/W) People walking through a garden in early spring, flowering trees. Children take photographs. 02:38:51 Fritz, Ellen (Maexie), and the three boys singing outdoors, very happy. Playing in the gardens, chickens, taking a walk. 02:40:02 (Color, kodachrome) A religious procession for Corpus Christi through Vienna city streets. Fritz Regenstreif walks through the garden (beautiful colors). The twins in Lederhosen pick flowers and go for a drive with Franz Leithner in an open car. (B/W) They children visit Schloss Leithner (the driver's home in the country). A car drives up a path towards a house. The twins bathe in a well outside, shine shoes, push a wheelbarrow, play with a dog, swim in a brook. They enjoy tea and cake. 02:45:25 They play with kittens in the yard. Cousin Hanni kicks around a ball with her father Paul. They ride bicycles. The three boys sit and eat Christmas dinner with their grandfather. They play music in front of the Christmas tree and visit their grandmother's grave at the Christian cemetery.
Note(s)
There is no burn-in time code on the DVD (user copy).
Subjects
- PARADES
- SNOW
- HOLIDAYS (CHRISTMAS)
- PERFORMANCES
- FAMILIES
- SPRING
- CEMETERIES
- CLERGY
- AUTOMOBILES
- CAMERAS
- JEWISH LIFE (PRE-WAR)
- MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
- COSTUMES
- BICYCLES
- FLOWERS
Places
- Vienna, Austria
- , Austria
Genre
- Film
- Amateur.