From Patriot to Refugee: The Life of Dr Siegmund Defris

Journal article

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In Journal Issue

Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 25, 3 (2021)

Author(s) Michael Pryles AbstractFrom a small town in the Habsburg Empire, Siegmund Defris qualified as a civil, and then an electrical, engineer. Electrical engineering was a new field, and he was one of its best-qualified pioneers. During World War One he served with distinction in the military, his expertise in electrical engineering proving invaluable to the Austrian war effort. Decorated for his services he afterwards diversified his business activities and became a prosperous, philanthropic industrialist. Following the Anschluss, he and his wife and daughter (the author's mother, who in Melbourne married refugee electrical engineer Felix Pryles) managed to acquire permits to come in Australia, his son and the latter's wife arriving separately. This article is based on extracts from the author's book Once in Vienna, published by Sid Harta Books, Glen Waverly, Vic., 2020.
Year2021
Pages457-475
Keyword(s)Refugees from Nazism; Electrical Engineers; Austrian Jews in Melbourne