Eric Sanders's Memory Map, Part 1

The first house Eric lived in was on the  Reichsapfelgasse  in central Vienna, between the  Mariahilfer Straße  – a major thoroughfare – and the  Sechshauser Straße , another large road that runs parallel to the Mariahilfer Straße. The Reichsapfelgasse was a side-street of the Sechshauser Straße. The Reichsapfelgasse is very close, too, to the famous  Schönbrun Palace , in the gardens of which Eric remembers playing as a child; according to his memories, for a time his mother would take him there every day.

At this time, Vienna had until very recently been the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; just prior to Eric’s birth in December, in September 1919, the Treaty of Saint-German-en-Laye had codified the dissolution of the Empire following its defeat in the First World War, much like the Treaty of Versailles with Germany and the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary. Some of the turbulent aftershocks that resulted from this defeat will be felt clearly in Eric’s life, as his story progresses.

Here we see the bottom of the street, as viewed from the Sechshauser Straße; Eric would have lived in an apartment in one of the two corner buildings, though it is unclear whether the building Eric originally lived in survived the war. Click on the embedded streetview to interact with it and explore the neighbourhood.

In his autobiography, Eric writes of the street:

"Translated into English, its name means Imperial Orb Street but somehow it did not appear to reflect the emperors' glory. Although grey, the houses were tall and solid, each containing an inner courtyard from which street singers occasionally entertained the tenants in the hope of a rain of coins" (p.16)

Background music: Vienna Song, original composition by Eric Sanders. Arranged by Dominic Doutney and performed by Esme Bronwen-Smith and Dominic Doutney.

According to most, Eric looked very much like his father. For much of his childhood, his father worked as what Eric describes in his recollections as an ‘egg shiner.’ He worked in a shop that sold eggs, where each item had to be checked individually to ensure that it was safe to consume. This was his father’s responsibility; according to Eric, he would use a special tool that shone a bright light through the egg in order to check the inside. This process is typically referred to as ‘egg candling.’

His father’s work was considered skilled, meaning that he was not classed as an Arbeiter, or worker, but was rather an Angestellter—what we might think of today as a professional. Arbeiters were typically paid weekly, in cash, whereas Angestellters were paid monthly, by remittance. This distinction had, according to Eric, a significant impact upon people’s status; perhaps most importantly for the family, it meant that his father received a holiday entitlement, which increased over time. The family would, as a result, take summer holidays to the countryside when the children were not at school; his father would join them once his leave had begun.

In his autobiography Eric remembers one such holiday in the village of  Mauerbach , where he remembers attempting to catch small frogs to keep in a jar; according to popular belief, the frogs would climb to the top of the jar when rain was coming. The jar Eric used - which had previously contained vinegar - had not been cleaned out properly, and this killed all of the frogs he collected. From this point on, he remembers, stamp-collecting and football became much more enjoyable hobbies (p.32).

At this point in Eric’s life, his mother was not working; later, we will hear more about how his parents opened a shop when the family moved home.

Eric began his education at a local Volksschule, or primary school, where his first teacher was a Herr Leopold. He had often been ill as a child, and he remembers his mother listing his various illnesses to the teacher upon his enrolment.

Throughout his childhood, Eric developed a great love of reading that would last for the rest of his life—indeed, he would go on to become a writer (among many other things) as an adult.

When the family went on holiday, they would often stay in an inn or hostel, known in the German-speaking world as a Wirtshaus or Gasthaus. Every time they went away in the summer, Eric’s parents would buy him a new book to read. Particularly, he remembers one occasion on which he found the book he was meant to receive as a present before the family had left for their holiday, and began reading it in secret – it was a copy of Verwehte Spuren [Covered Tracks] by Franz Treller, a Wild West adventure story; Eric still remembered the plot at 101 years of age, at the time of the interviews. He was also particularly fond of books by Karl May, many of which were also Wild West stories; when he got a little older, he would use his pocket money to buy himself copies whenever he could.

The image here shows the cover pages from a 1911 edition of another of Treller's books, Eine Versunkene Welt [A Lost/Sunken World] (Public domain).

Eric also began his musical education whilst still a young boy, as was quite common for many children in Vienna at this time. Eric thinks that his mother was “ambitious for her children to have social graces.”

His first encounters with musical education were not terribly successful. He was briefly taught the violin by an upstairs neighbour before attending a small children’s orchestra for a little while. The teacher here told Eric and his mother that he had

His mother then took him to the choir master of the local synagogue. He tested Eric’s ability by singing notes to see whether he was able to identify them. He said much the same as the orchestra leader:

“He hasn’t much of an ear, but he can come to the lessons; it’s a choir, we won’t hear him!”

It was here that Eric began learning the basics of reading music; after six weeks, however, he had had enough. His mother was sympathetic, and asked him:

He agreed to this, and his mother quickly found an inexpensive teacher on the Sechshauser Straße. Eric remembers his first encounter with this teacher:

“I remember exactly what she was playing, and I know why […] – she was playing a Schlager [a popular song] – Mein Schatz ist ein Matrose [My darling is a sailor]… [he continues singing]”

Whilst he doesn’t remember this woman as being a particularly good teacher, within a year he could identify any note as soon as it was played; he had developed an ear for music. As Eric puts it,

At around the same time, Eric’s mother borrowed money from his wealthy uncle Hermann in order to buy what he describes as a “narrow piano” that was placed in his bedroom. He remembers practising some of his mother’s favourite opera pieces:

“The first time that I tried some music from a book that I’d received as a present – an Opern [opera] book – I was playing Carmen, slowly, but she [his mother] came running in and—not the radio but me—“Eric is playing Carmen!” – and I think the whole bloody family heard during the next weeks that “Eric was playing Carmen!””

Later, the family would move to another part of Vienna, so Eric would stop learning with his Sechshauser Straße teacher; instead he would begin learning with a woman who taught both piano and French, and who he referred to as “Madame.”

Despite the difficult start to his musical education and apparent lack of natural talent (according to his early teachers, at least), music would go on to become a major part of Eric’s life. There are countless moments in his recollections in which music comes to the fore.

He remembers, for example, playing a duet on the piano with a colleague he had previously considered an ‘enemy,’ much later, as a teacher in England, thereby thawing the frosty relationship between the two men.

He also remembers how,

And he remembers setting up nights for dancing in  London  whilst working at the refugee association based at  Bloomsbury House  – we will return to this later.

Whilst still in Vienna, too, Eric almost achieved some success as a musical playwright; the father-in-law of his friend Walter Heckler (who we will meet in the next map) was administrative director of the  Theater an der Wien  and Walter—without Eric’s knowledge—had presented the man with copies of Eric’s musical theatre works. In turn, the director had passed Eric’s work on to the theatre's artistic directors, who had agreed to stage a performance. Sadly, this would not come to pass owing to the rise of the Nazis.

In the background to this slide, we can hear an example of one of Eric’s compositions – this one is titled Little Coffee Bar. It is a good example of the kind of popular music that Eric tended to write – not bad for a composer who allegedly had a tin ear for music!

Background music: Little Coffee Bar, original composition by Eric Sanders. Arranged by Dominic Doutney and performed by Norbert Meyn and Dominic Doutney.

In all, Eric’s childhood was a good one, and his parents cared for him a great deal. Eric does remember, however, one occasion on which his father hit him in anger; this story is indicative of the tensions that were rising in the city at this time.

Eric was a member of a Zionist youth organisation, of which there were several in Vienna at this time, divided according to political affiliations – he was part of the social democrat group, Zirenu, with whom he would go on excursions to the  Vienna Woods  and similar locations to take part in sport and other outdoor activities. It was here that he would meet his friend Elli Grossman, with whom he would be close for a while; they first met when she beat him in the final leg of a relay race.

Once, after his Hebrew lesson on the  Storchengasse , Eric walked to meet Elli as she was leaving a meeting of Zirenu on the nearby  Turnergasse . As they talked outside, the children were accosted by two “Gassenbuben” [“Street boys”], who shouted at them and chased them. The pair made for Eric’s Hebrew school on Storchengasse; as they crossed  Gumpendorfer Straße , Elli saved Eric from running into the path of an oncoming car by pulling him back from the street.

When Eric eventually arrived home, he was two hours later than he should have been. His parents had been so worried that they had called the police; this was when Eric’s father hit him in anger for the only time in his life.

Violence and social tensions are a striking feature of Eric’s recollections of his childhood and adolescence; they seem to be fairly common around this time, often in relation to the fractious political situation that followed the First World War.

A little later in Eric’s life, for instance, he remembers walking with his friend Walter Heckler in  Hietzing  when they were verbally abused by two other boys, who began shouting anti-Semitic remarks at them. Walter beat both of them up, but the boys reported him at a local police station; he realised this, and so made a counter-claim. Eric would act as a witness in the upcoming trial in which the judge, “had to find Walter guilty, but he didn’t give him prison or anything like that,” according to Eric. He remembers the judge addressing the two assailants: