First Person With Hedi Pope

Tue 26 Jul, 1:30-2:30 pm. 100 Rauol Wallenberg Place, SW, Washington, D.C., 20024-2126. Andrea Lewis, 202-314-7810, alewis@ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - [events]

July 26, 2011 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM PLACE Helena Rubinstein Auditorium, Museum First Person is a program for the public featuring a series of conversations with Holocaust survivors. These eyewitness accounts unite personal experience with history in a way that is extraordinary in its immediacy and power. Each hour-long program is presented as a live interview with an opportunity for the audience to ask questions. are asked to remain seated for the entire hour-long program to minimize disruptions for the speaker.

The First Person guest speaker on July 26, 2011 is Holocuast survivor, Hedi Pope.
Hedi was born on March 18, 1920 in Vienna, Austria. Her father, Oscar, ran a successful business, thus providing for Hedi, her mother, Marie, and her older sister, Eva. Hedi grew up with a love for dance and was often involved in theater and performances across Vienna. When not participating in a production, Hedi skied and played with neighborhood friends. She graduated from a Viennese high school in June 1938.

Following the German invasion of Austria on March 12, 1938 and the Anschluss on the following day, Hedi's parents decided their children would be safer outside of Europe. They were able to secure affidavits for Hedi and Eva from cousins in the United States. However, believing that the Nazi regime would pass and that their children would be able to return to Vienna after Hitler left power, they did not obtain affidavits for themselves. Nevertheless, Oscar took classes in both English and plumbing, just in case.

On November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht, Hedi's father and other members of the English class he was attending were taken to an old army barracks. They were detained for several days without food or water before being sent to Dachau. All correspondence from Oscar reassured the family that he was fine and that the plans to send the children to the United States should be kept.

In January 1939 Hedi and Eva immigrated to the United States where they were greeted by their cousins and brought to live in Newark, New Jersey. In the first letter from their mother the girls learned that their father had died in Dachau on 23 January. Just eighteen years old and a recent arrival in the United States, Hedi made contact with the Refugee Artist Group who was financing newly-arrived Viennese actors to produce a show called From Vienna. The light-hearted production ran at the Music Box Theater for two months during the summer of 1939.

Shortly after her arrival in early 1939 Hedi applied for a scholarship through the International Student Service. She was awarded a scholarship to attend the Miami University in Ohio where she earned her Bachelor's degree in 1942. She went on to earn her Master's degree from Wellesley College in 1943, also on full scholarship. Hedi's mother, Marie, as well as her aunt and uncle, were not able to leave Vienna until 1940 when they escaped on one of the last Dutch boats out of Europe. Hedi and Marie were reunited in the United States shortly thereafter.

In 1946 Hedi married William C. Pope who had recently returned from his Navy command in the South Pacific. A year later she founded The Dance Studio in Alexandria, Virginia which she ran until 1980, continuing to perform and teach dance for many years. Hedi and William have two children and one grandchild. She has been involved in many community projects and began volunteering at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993.