AHC interview with Alice Ciosek.

April 23, 2016Alice Ciosek, née Fraenkel was born on March 9, 1920 in Vienna, Austria. She grew up in the 2nd district on Pazmanitengasse 24, together with her older sister Edith and their parents Max Fraenkel , a painter and decorator, and Frieda Fraenkel, née Amber). Alice finished an apprenticeship as a saleswoman in Vienna’s first district and then worked as a housemaid for several families; after 1938 she worked exclusively for Jewish families.Shortly after the Anschluss, Alice's sister Edith found a job as a housemaid in England and emigrated. In February 1939, Edith managed to find Alice a place as a housemaid for a family in Nottingham. Alice took the train from Austria to Belgium, then transferred to France from where she took a ship to Nottingham, England. A few months after Alice's arrival, Edith immigrated to the United States with her soon-to-be husband. Alice then worked for various families in the UK, predominantly located in London and its suburbs. Alice got married in England, and her sister provided affidavits for Alice and her husband to immigrate to the United States in November 1947. They moved to Brooklyn, New York, and Alice soon started her studies to become a (home) nurse. Alice had two children and settled in Staten Island.Max Fraenkel died in Theresienstadt. Frieda Fraenkel was deported to camps in Eastern Europe and perished in the Holocaust.Austrian Heritage Collectio