Emil, Franz und Gut, Irma

My great uncle Franz Gut (or Guth) née Schulz
He was born in Raab, what is now Hungary on 24 July 1880. He lived with his wife, Irma Gut, in his own house in Hietzing, Wien 13, Wenzgasse 14.

My great aunt Irma Gut (or Guth) née Schulz
She was born on 17 October 1888 in Birtnitz, what is now Birtnitz in the Czech Republic. They were both deported to Minsk on 5 October 1942 and were never heard again. Their house was expropriated by the Deutsches Reich.

In a letter from my grandmother to me after the "Anschluss" she mentions that she and I visited Karl Gut (or Guth), another great uncle, (and his wife/Lebensgefährtin called Wally) in Hietzing and that I amused myself by working in his garden. I have been unable to find its address. Shortly afterwards I was sent by Kindertransport to England. I know a great deal more about Innere Stadt, where I lived in the Grillparzerhaus, Spiegelgasse 21, Wien 1.

Myself
After war service with the British Army in India and South-East Asia, I studied for a chemistry degree and became in 1965 Professor of Chemistry (Ordinarius) at Birkbeck College,University of London. In 1977 I received an honorary doctorate from the Université Paul Sabatier of Toulouse. In 1991 I became Professor Emeritus, but I am still directing international research projects involving inter alia academic institutions in Poland, Turkey, as well as in the U.K. I have published more than 320 articles, mainly on scientific subjects, but also on developing countries and one on Lebenslange Lernen, of which I am enclosing a copy, as it might interest you. My theme was then a bit ahead of ist time, but has been taken up widely since, though regretfully often only as lip service.

Apart from my scientific interests, I have also an abiding interest in history. You will undoubtedly know of some of my distinguished colleagues in that field, which include Eric Hobsbawm (another ex-Viennese), whose autobiography has just been published, my ex-colleague, Richard Evans (now at Cambridge University), wjo gave the devastatingly critical evidence in the David Irving libel case in the Holocaust Denial Trial and the classicist hisorians, the late Eric Warmington and Robert Browning.