Illich family activities in 1941 to 1942 including forced sale of villa
Creator(s)
- Yvonne Illich
- Ellen R. Illich (Camera Operator)
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 years 1941-1942. [There are no German titles.] Leader shows "Agfa 1942" and "Agfa 1941". (Color) Pan of the Vienna skyline at dusk. The boys saw a tree stump with the help of their driver Leithner. Good CUs. Fritz Regenstreif and nurse walk arm in arm down a cobblestone road [this is the last film of Fritz before dying a natural death in his house on May 8, 1941]. The boys continue sawing and Maexie appears for a brief moment. One of the twins awkwardly pushes lumber in a wheelbarrow. Aerial views of the villa grounds. 03:17:15 (B/W) Boxes and furniture are being loaded into a trailer as the Nazis prepare for taking over the Regenstreif villa. (See RG-60.1245 at 02:25:14 for an earlier view of the villa foyer). The boys play around a GUSTAV KNAUER truck filled with their belongings. Men (Nazis) stand behind the trailer discussing as the doors are closed. Leithner is at left. The overweight bald man, with a Nazi party pin on his lapel, seals the truck doors shut. A tractor pulls the trailer with Regenstreif belongings and art down the road with the twins riding on the back. They wave goodbye as the truck leaves the property. Family members sit outside in a garden saying goodbyes - drinking, smoking, and laughing. CUs of individuals: Leithner with Lisl (Grandfather Fritz's secretary who worked in a Jewish hospital and was deported to Auschwitz), a woman smelling flowers, Maexie cutting blossoms (wearing black after Fritz's death), and ladies walking through the garden. The women say farewell. Ivan and the twin boys give the women flowers. Pan of cityscape of Vienna from the terrace on villa grounds. An older Ivan sits at a table on an outside terrace with his family, eating their last supper there. 03:20:57 The three boys drive away on the bed of another moving truck filled with personal luggage and wave to the camera [the family moved into a pension after the forced sale of the villa at Poetzleinsdorf]. Three adults descend the stairs of the Regenstreif home - the NSDAP man wears a long leather jacket. The boys, dressed in suits, give a basket to the man containing the keys to the villa. CUs of the three adults (two men and one woman). This is the final "sale" of the Poetz villa to the Nazis. More views of the house. 03:21:53 At their new home at Pension Schiedl in the cottage district of Vienna in May 1941, Maexie and a friend knit and lounge outdoors. One of the twins plays with a dog in the yard. Overhead shot of Hitler Youth marching with flags in a courtyard of the boys' school which ended in June 1941. The group practices queuing up with a swastika banner, prepares for a parade, takes the flag down, and marches by (CUs). The boys bid farewell to their teachers. The family walks along the streets with a priest in Poetzleinsdorf and visits the graves of their grandparents, Fritz and Johanna Regenstreif (Fritz died on May 8, 1941). They have lunch; Ivan and Micha pose with their mother Maexie. The family visits friends (the Imhof Family) in the country, including children. 03:25:55 (Color) The boys walk down a tree-lined street and into the pension. They wait at a tram stop, "Meidlung Hauptstrasse", and then at another station with their piano teacher. Another excursion south of Vienna takes the family hiking towards a castle. Beautiful aerial views of the mountain. MS of Maexie and Micha. Farm scene. 03:27:54 (B/W) In 1942, the twins wait on a train platform with luggage for a trip to Mariazell. Maexie and Ivan are dressed warmly. [That night, Maexie received a call that her brother Paul would escape in the snow to Hungary.] The twins look over the snowy countryside from the moving train. The boys trudge through the deep snow in a village. Aerial view of the city. Boys out for another walk in the snow with an unidentified woman, visiting restaurants and shops in the Austrian city. CU, cross. At the top of the mountain, they throw snowballs and rest on tree stumps. They take a chairlift to the bottom of the mountain with the woman and walk through town. 03:31:57 Back in Vienna, the boys exit the gate to their pension (home) and walk through town with a teenage friend. The boys light a small camping stove and eat lunch. INTs, the family eating dinner. Maexie and a friend exiting the pension to mail a postcard. This is presumably the family's goodbye from Vienna. Good city view of Vienna with pedestrians and traffic.
Note(s)
Pursuant to antisemitic property laws, Fritz Regenstreif was obliged to enter into a forced sale contract with the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF) on January 27, 1941. The contract was due to be executed upon his death which occurred on May 8, 1941. All the interior furnishings and art remained at the property. The Regenstreif family was only allowed to take one small truck with them when they departed. The Villa Regenstreif (Poetz) property had been identified by Magda Goebbels, who had a keen interest in obtaining the villa for her individual use and that of the Nazi womens' party organziaton. The villa was sold again on March 5, 1943 to the NS Volkswolhfahrt e.V. (NSV). There is no burn-in time code on the DVD (user copy).
Subjects
- SNOW
- MARCHING
- NAZI OFFICIALS
- EATING
- DOGS
- ART
- STREETCARS
- FLOWERS
- SCHOOLS
- SUMMER
- STREETS
- CITIES
- HITLER YOUTH
- ARYANIZATION
- TRAINS
- TRUCKS
- CEMETERIES
- JEWISH LIFE (PRE-WAR)
- FARMERS/FARMING
- FAMILIES
- MOUNTAINS
- CLERGY
- SWASTIKAS
Places
- , Austria
- Vienna, Austria
Genre
- Film
- Amateur.