The Philippe Halsmann Affair : [1918-1973].

The memoirs were written in the late 1970s in the United States. Description of family background. His father Dr. Ernst Ruzicka came from an assimilated Jewish family in Vienna, whereas his mother was born to an orthodox Jewish family in Galicia, Eastern Europe. The marriage only lasted a few years. Martin was raised by a Catholic governess, who contributed to his confusion in religious matters. He was enrolled in a local Gymnasium, and later on continued his studies at the Vienna University.The main part of the memoir concentrates on a detailed reflection and description of the “Halsmann-trial” in 1928, where a young Jewish man from Latvia was charged with the murder of his father during an alpine tour in Tyrol. This trial contributed to an open outburst of anti-Semitism in Austria and even received international attention, comparable to the Dreyfus scandal in France a few decades earlier. The author reflects on the different stages of the trial and the increasing anti-Semitism during that process. He also describes the effect on his assimilated paternal family, who expressed their identification with the young Phillippe Halsmann as well as their worries about the injustice done. The father of the author published various articles in the “Neue Freie Presse” about the case and was involved in the trial regarding a crucial witness of the defence. He eventually wrote a book about the Halsmann case, which was published in 1930.On the day of the Anschluss in March of 1938, the author left Austria together with his brother and eventually emigrated to the United States. His father originally disapproved of their decision, assuming nobody would dare to lay a finger on the family of a World War One veteran. He later on was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he perished in 1941.The memoirs end with a reflection on the parallels between the lives of the Halsmann and his own family during a trip to Austria in 1973. It includes a petition to the Austrian president Jonas to reverse the verdict in the Halsmann case in order to remove a stigma not only from Halsmann, but also from Austria.The lawyer Martin H. Ross was born as Martin Ruzicka in 1918 in Vienna, Austria. His parents got divorced a few years after his birth due to their different cultural backgrounds. He attended Gymnasium and was enrolled at Vienna University. Together with his brother he left Austria on the day of the Anschluss to Nazi Germany in March of 1938 and emigrated to the United States