- Joseph Buttinger
Joseph Buttinger (b. 1906
Austria ; d. 4 March 1992,Queens ,New York ) was born into a working-class family and left school at age 13 to help support his family.He became a youth movement leader in Austria and, by the age of 24, was secretary of the Social Democratic Party. After being imprisoned for several months in 1934, he became chairman of the Socialist underground and a leader of the anti-Fascist movement. When Germany occupied Austria in 1938, he and his American-born wife
Muriel Gardiner fled toParis , where he was chairman of the exiled Socialists. In 1939, several months before the fall of France, the couple moved to theUnited States with Gardiner's daughter from a previous marriage, Connie, whom Joseph later adopted.In 1941, he and his wife arranged US visas for his brother
Alois Buttinger and his family; one of the references for the visa application was signed byAlfred Einstein .During and after
World War II , Buttinger helped establish many of the refugee programs for theInternational Rescue Committee (IRC). His personal actions helped smuggle thousands of anti-Fascist refugees out of Europe. For over 40 years he served as director of the IRC's Paris office and European division, and as an IRC board member and vice president.In the 1950s, Buttinger and his wife subsidized the democratic socialist magazine "
Dissent ", edited byIrving Howe . During the same decade, he aided north Vietnamese refugees in South Vietnam and took an abiding interest in the history and culture of that country. Initially a friend and supporter ofNgo Dinh Diem , Buttinger became disillusioned with Diem's dictatorial ways and renounced him. He formed theAmerican Friends of Vietnam , and became a prominent scholar of that country's culture and politics, producing a two-volume work entitled "Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled". He also produced several other books on Vietnam and on the history of socialism.In 1972 the Austrian Government awarded him its Golden Order of Merit. According to the New York Times, the then-Chancellor of Austria,
Bruno Kreisky , observed that `Mr. Buttinger was such a hero that if he had returned he would have become Chancellor.'The Mina Rees Library of the
CUNY Graduate Center owns the “ [http://apps.appl.cuny.edu:83/F/?func=find-c&ccl_term=WCL+=+(+but*+) Joseph Buttinger Rare Book Collection on Utopias] .”References
* "Joseph A. Buttinger, Nazi Fighter and Vietnam Scholar, Dies at 85", "New York Times", 8 March 1992
External links
*" [http://www.forward.com/issues/2004/04.01.16/arts1.html An Influential Political Journal Celebrates Its Golden Anniversary] ", Gerald Sorin, "Forward", 16 January 2004
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