Obstructed View: A Memoir of a Young Girl Growing Up in Wartime Vienna - Paperback

by Katharina Rich Perlow (Author)

At various times throughout her adult life in the United States, Katharina Rich Perlow was asked how her family survived World War II in Vienna, Austria. She was reluctant to conjure up the harrowing events of her childhood-until now. As the number of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust diminishes rapidly, and for the sake of her children and grandchildren, Katharina felt compelled to tell her story.

Her memoir is the story of six-year-old Katharina, her two older siblings, her Catholic mother and her Jewish father, forcibly moved from a quiet, small-town life into a tiny apartment in the heart of wartime, working-class Vienna. It is the story of her soon-to-be widowed mother trying desperately to conceal from neighbors the secret that meant the difference between life and death. Despite being deprived of all the normal hallmarks of childhood, including school, social life, and even food, Katharina tells her story from the point of view of the energetic, curious, and insightful girl that she was, and the woman she was to become. From learning to dance the waltz in her tiny kitchen, to hiding in the catacombs during the Allied bombing, this is a story of bravery, family sacrifice, and survival under the most horrific of circumstances-and ultimately, of hope and resilience.

Author Biography

Katharina Rich Perlow was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. She grew up in Vienna and immigrated to the United States in 1951. She attended Hunter College, studying art history, and became director of an art gallery in SoHo in 1977. In 1984 she founded her own fine arts gallery, The Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, 1984-2011. She lives in New York City with her husband, Bill, and continues to work as a private art dealer.