In the process of writing the second volume of Two Suitcases I continually return to historical sources to check that I’m getting the story right. As I reviewed and revised a chapter in which the Revolutionary Socialist Party of Austria is introduced, I came across an article I hadn’t read before, “Thinking Cosmopolitan or How Joseph became Joe Buttinger” by Philipp Luis Strobl. What a find!
Joseph Buttinger will be making at least a cameo appearance in my new novel, but I think his story should be shared now because of its relevance to the current political situation in the US. I’ve cut and pasted the opening below. The entire article, even in its slightly flawed English translation, is worth reading. Read it here: http://www.science.usd.cas.cz/Presentations/Strobl.pdf
On May 27, 1932, the Austrian parliament approved a new government that would change the democratic course the country had pursued since the end of the First World War. The new chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß now was in charge of the country’s leadership. On October 1, he used a so‐called “emergency degree”, a wartime relict, to rule the country without the approbation of the Austrian parliament. That was the hour of birth of Austria’s first dictatorship. The consequences for the people were fatal. Unliebsame Personen as “unpleasing” persons were called at that time had more and more problems living a normal life. Particularly intellectuals who were engaged in the ideas of psychoanalysis, neopositivism, or austromarxism (socialism) had to fear reprisals from the government. Life became very hard for the government’s opponents, but for most of these persons, the situation turned from bad to worse with the incorporation of Austria into Hitler’s German Reich in 1938. So‐called “enemies of the government” were forced to emigrate ‐ and many of them did so. According to a 1941 Office of Strategic Service memorandum, more than 40,000 Austrians had immigrated to the United States during the three years since the “Anschluss” in 1938. This paper is about one of those who emigrated as a result of ideological reasons.
Eve Neuhaus 
Thank you for sharing your amazing find–someone most of us have never heard of–Joseph Buttinger. What a life story! From an exploited farm laborer deprived of knowledge of the wider world to a pre-eminent American seeking to explain Vietnamese culture and history to his government and compatriots—and this by someone who, in his youth, probably had no inkling that a place called “Vietnam” even existed! Not to mention the suspenseful intervals between, in which the good fortune of his meeting with a woman with resources eased his escape from what otherwise might have been certain doom.
The realities of that interval, when “unpleasing persons” were sought for exile or elimination, is one that holds all too much relevance for us today! If the incoming regime follows through with its threat (so blatantly unconstitutional that some of the incoming regime’s most ardent supporters, such as Rand Paul, are warning not to go there) to use the US military in our nation’s interior to ferret out “undesirables” whose “papers are not in order,” essentially an internal military occupation–de facto martial law–then humanitarian and resistance organizations will face unprecedented challenges. Groups such as Undocu-support and the Santa Barbara Immigrant Legal Defense Fund (which is sometimes active in SLO County–such as in confronting the plan to confine 5000 immigrant children at Camp Roberts) will need public support–especially if the regime acquires the ability to deprive non-profits of their tax-exampt status by executive fiat–and may need to learn to operate under unprecedented circumstances.
I’m hoping the second volume of “Two Suitcases” will give us a close look at how needed efforts at resistance and assistance were organized–how much could happen organically as a function of community (and what features are needed to insure such organic functioning of a community), and how much needed deliberate planning and strategizing.
Even though the present season is characterized in the US by ritual turkey sacrifices and a weirdly distorted version of the history of cultural interactions in 17th Century North America, the idea of people gathering together to share unhurried meals and to give thanks has its virtues. One thing for which we can ALL be thankful is that Eve is not only sharing important history with us in instructive and engaging ways, but doing so with full awareness of the urgency of our putting its lessons–successes and cautionary tales–into practice in our own fraught here-and-now.
Thanks so much, Eric. I’m doing my best to get these stories out there. I’m currently revising the second volume, Underground, enriching it with tales like Buttinger’s, and reflecting on the power of the Underground railway and Quaker resistance in many forms. I like unyielding pacifist values and their activism.