Driftwood: escape and survival through art

by Eva de Jong Duldig (2017)

In 1938 sculptor Karl Duldig, his wife Slawa Horowitz-Duldig – inventor of the modern foldable umbrella – and their baby daughter Eva, left their home in Vienna for an uncertain future. They found a brief refuge in Singapore before arriving in Sydney on 25 September 1940. Australia was at war: they were classified as enemy aliens and interned in an isolated camp in northern Victoria. Karl said ‘A game of tennis saved my life’.

The story follows the family’s narrow escape from Nazi Austria, as well as the recovery of all their Viennese art and other possessions after the war. Spanning three continents and three generations, it poignantly captures both the loss that families encounter when they are dislocated by war and the challenges they face when adapting to a new way of life.

Reviews

I have read many similar auto-biographies of Holocaust-era migrants to Australia and this is certainly one of the best, gripping, cogent and lucid, and produced with many informative documents and photographs.
William D. Rubinstein
Emeritus Professor at University of Aberystwyth and Adjunct Professor at Monash University, Australia.

I found this book fascinating! It is not only a family history, it is also a record of the times in Europe and Australia.
Ken Scarlett OAM
writer and curator

I was deeply touched by this book. It is about a family’s life, challenged but rich, at times difficult but rewarding, at the beginning endangered but always hopeful.
Johannes Aigner
Austrian Chargé d’Affaires, Canberra

A treasure trove
Emeritus Professor K.S. Inglis AO

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