Sylvia Cherny

Title: Who is Sylvia?
Author: Sylvia Cherny
Publisher: Makor Jewish Community Library
Place of publication: Melbourne
Year of Publication: 2004
Location of Book: Rare Books Collection, Sir Louis Matheson Library, Monash University Clayton Campus
Cities/town/camps: Austria: Vienna, Wieselburg, France: La Bourboule, USA: New York, Australia: Melbourne
Note: those cities/towns/camps underlined are those which are most central to the narrative

Who is Sylvia? briefly tells the story of Sylvia Cherny’s life, from her birth in 1934 to her marriage in 1951. 48 pages in length, it was written in 2003 and published the following year by Makor Jewish Community Library.

Sylvia Cherny (nee Mahler) was born in Vienna but grew up in an assimilated household in Wieselburg, Austria. Her father was a factory owner, enabling the family to enjoy a comfortable existence. This changed when the Germans moved into Austria in March, 1938. One day the Gestapo raided Sylvia’s house looking for her father. He was not there during the raid but committed suicide that night. A year later Sylva and her brother left on a kindertransport to a Rothschild-sponsored children’s home in France. After learning some French, Sylvia and her brother were placed in local schools. In addition to regular classes, the children worked digging trenches and helping with farm labour. When the north of France fell to the Germans in 1940, the children were evacuated south to La Bourboule. In La Bourboule the children suffered from inadequate food and heating.

In May 1941 Sylvia received news that her relatives in New York had arranged the appropriate documents for her and her brother to enter America. After initially discovering that all the ships leaving Europe were full, they eventually managed to leave for New York in June 1941. Sylvia learnt English in New York before leaving on a boat to Australia in September. Due to the fact that they had been persecuted in Austria, Sylvia and her brother were considered ‘friendly aliens’ rather than ‘enemy aliens.’ Nonetheless, they were forced to report to a local police station once a week, were forbidden from owning a radio or speaking German on the telephone, and were unable to travel without a permit. Over time Sylvia managed to establish a new life for herself and was married in 1951.

Sylvia relays her story in a concise and matter-of-fact manner. The book does not contain vivid recollections of experiences or detailed descriptions of places; rather, it follows a simple narrative tracking Sylvia’s journey from Austria to Australia.