Anny (Hubner)
Andermann (the donor's mother) was born in Galicia. Her father died
when she was a child, and during WWI her mother moved the family to
Vienna. As a young woman, Anny met Adolf Andermann, a Jew from
Suceava, Romania, who was a biologist by training, but worked at a
bank in Vienna. They were married in Zurich and moved to Cernauti,
Romania in 1925. There her husband established a factory that
produced knives and scissors, while Anny became active in social
welfare organizations.
In the 1930s
Anny served as president of the
Romanian branch of the OSE (Oeuvre de secours aux Enfants), the
Jewish children's welfare organization. During the war the family
moved to Bucharest, where Anny continued her social welfare work.
When information became available about the plight of Jewish orphans
stranded in Transnistria, Anny organized a campaign with other women
calling for their repatriation. To this end she met with the Queen
mother and the Papal Nuncio. In March 1944, 1,841 orphans were
brought back to Romania, where they were cared for in a number of
schools in Bucharest that were made over into orphanages. As the
tide of the war turned, plans were made to return the Transnistria
orphans to their places of origin, many of which had come under
Soviet domination. Anny, hoping to avoid this outcome, arranged for
their transport to Palestine. After the war the Andermanns went to
Paris, and from there immigrated to Canada in 1950.
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