Aussig an der Elbe [Cz.: Ústí nad Laben]
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Town in Bohemia, 120 km (68 miles) north of Prague, at the confluence of the Biela and Elbe rivers, until 1918 part of Austria-Hungary, from 1919 part of the Czech Republic.
Home of the Schiff family
Jenny Schiff (by first marriage: Kornfeld; by second marriage: Schenker) was born in Aussig, and remained there through most of her first marriage, to Emil Kornfeld, from 1893 to 1910. During the period 1910–19, her petition for separation, and her tax affairs, were conducted through Aussig and Leitmeritz, as reported in Schenker's diaries.
Emil Kornfeld had his company, trading in petroleum, oil and grease, in Aussig, and his two sons, Erich and Felix were born and grew up in Aussig, and it is probable that Heinrich Schenker, who was friendly with the Kornfelds until the break occurred, visited the family there in the years between c.1893 and 1910.
When in April 1936 Jeanette embarked on her voyage to Santiago, Chile, and back, her first stop was Aussig – for the first time in 26 years. Arriving on the 27th, she wrote: In Aussig everyone is courteous and sweet, above all the my hosts the W[eil] family, but also Louis, his wife and daughter (their granddaughter!). My brother-in-law [Oskar] H[atschek] gives me a picture of Klara and a small piece of her handicraft, also an incomplete pencil drawing, a very serious challenge (portrait of her husband). A visit to my parents’ grave, a visit at Louis’s, a moment with Mrs. [Klara] H[atschek], who is ill in bed – time has literally stood still there. […] The town has grown sizeably in the last quarter century; two-storey houses are now four storeys high, the small-town atmosphere is the same as it has always been. I look at my parents’ house; children and young girls are at play, it is as if I am in a dream. Not one familiar face: a quarter of a century! (ed. and transl. William Drabkin)
She departed on the 30th, Paul and Anna Schiff waving her off.
- Ian Bent