My Aunt Edith Stein: Oral History Event with Susanne Batzdorff
May 15, 2011

Event cosponsors: Temple Beth Sholom; The Ecumenical and Inter-religious Commission of the Diocese of Oakland, in collaboration with The Most Reverend Salvatore Cordelioni, Bishop of Oakland

Edith Stein was Susanne Batzdorff’s aunt, her mother’s younger sister. Edith was a renowned philosopher, lectured all over Europe and wrote many books and articles. She converted to Catholicism and in 1933 entered a Carmelite convent in Cologne, Germany. Edith was transferred to Holland after Kristallnacht, because the Cologne Carmel felt that both the community and Edith would be safer if she left Germany. When the Germans conquered Holland, both she and her older sister Rosa, who had joined her in Holland, were deported to Auschwitz and gassed. Edith Stein was canonized by Pope John Paul II in Oct. 1998 and later named a Patroness of Europe. Her many literary works are now being published in 26 volumes and many of them have appeared in English translation. Susanne will tell you more of the dramatic story of her Aunt Edith and her impact on her Jewish family. She will also read from her book, Aunt Edith: The Jewish Heritage of a Catholic Saint.

Susanne Batzdorff was born in Breslau, Germany, in 1921. Her parents, Hans and Erna Biberstein were both medical doctors, her father a dermatologist and her mother an obstetrician and gynecologist. In 1933 Hitler came to power in Germany and National Socialism became in effect the state religion. State-sponsored persecution of Jews began.

In the summer of 1938 Susanne’s parents lost their medical licenses and thus their livelihood. They decided to leave Germany for the U. S. Her father got a teaching position at Columbia University, and on the strength of that could apply for non-quota visas for his family. Thus her mother, her brother and she could leave for America in February 1939. Six months after arrival in the U. S. she entered Brooklyn College, majored in English, and graduated summa cum laude in 1943.

In 1944, she got a degree in Library Science from Pratt Institute and in 1947 an MA in English Literature from Columbia University. She worked as a librarian in college, medical, public and Judaic libraries. She contributed articles to periodicals, including NY Times, America, Moment Magazine, edited and contributed to several volumes by and about St. Edith Stein, translated several of her works originally published in German, published 2 volumes of poetry and 4 dramatic readings relating to the Holocaust and Aunt Edith: The Jewish Heritage of a Catholic Saint.

She has been happily married to Alfred Batzdorff, for 67 years. They have three sons, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. After her talk on Edith Stein, Susanne will tell you how she and her parents and brother emigrated from Nazi Germany and rebuilt their life in America.

You can also read this 1999 article from the Jesuit Review: Edith Stein’s niece on what her canonization means for Catholic-Jewish dialogue. Susan’s book is available from the Internet Library.