Biography

Thomas (Wiener) Winner is Notable.

Thomas was born in 1917. He was the son of Julius G. Wiener and Františka Grűnhutová.^[1][2][3] He married Irene Portis before 1945.^[4]

Thomas died in 2004.^[3] He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[5]

Obituary

Thomas Winner, a member of the Czech underground who escaped Nazism in 1939 as one of 20 East European students to receive full scholarships to Harvard, died April 20 in Cambridge, Mass., where he lived. A multilingual scholar and an expert on Russian literature, Mr. Winner was 86.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, said his daughter Ellen Winner.

Mr. Winner, who was born in Prague on May 3, 1917, was among the first group of refugee scholars sponsored by the Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees, a student-led organization that established the first scholarships for college men in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. The committee canvassed the United States, raising $500 a student, which Harvard matched. The university accepted 19 additional European students by 1942. About 20 more arrived in the United States later as the program expanded to campuses throughout the country.

" We wanted to pluck these students from the burning fire in Germany, " a former committee member, Robert E. Lane, said.

The program relied on professors to disseminate applications and an accompanying test to Eastern European universities and resistance centers.

The 22-year-old Mr. Winner, who was Jewish, needed the Gestapo to certify his papers and declare him free of any criminal activity before he could legally leave Prague for the United States. His activism had led to a police record. After Mr. Winner persuaded an officer to let him enter the processing area, a German woman glanced at his record upside down, approved his application and sent him off. He traveled to England and sailed for New York on Sept. 2, 1939, the day after Germany invaded Poland to begin World War II.

At Harvard, Mr. Winner threw himself into studies and protest, lecturing throughout on Nazi resistance and pursuing a degree in Russian literature.

Mr. Winner, who spoke 20 languages, went to work for the Office for War Information, translating German propaganda, and later worked at Columbia. In 1948, he became a professor of Russian language and literature at Duke. Over the years, he also taught at the University of Michigan and Brown.

An expert on Chekhov, he shifted his focus to linguistics and structuralism and helped open the United States ' first center for the research of semiotics at Brown. He later transferred the program to Boston University.

As Mr. Winner spent much of his career traveling throughout the United States and Europe, he organized conferences, held temporary appointments and researched new work.

In addition to his daughters Ellen, of Cambridge, and Lucy Winner of Brooklyn, he is survived by his wife, Irene; a brother, Gerdi Weiner of Lenox, Mass.; and two grandchildren.

Sources

1. ↑ Yad Vashem - Pages of Testimony Names Memorial Collection, Item ID#1299773. Name: Wiener, Julius. Age: 53?. Birthplace: Vienna, Austria. Mother: Olga. Father: Gustav. Spouse: Margret. Profession: Businessman. Place of residence before the war: Hamburg, Germany. Place of residence during the war: Novo Mesto, Yugoslavia. Circumstances of death: suicide after Gestapo interrogation. Informant: Thomas G. Winner, son.
2. ↑ Yad Vashem - Pages of Testimony Names Memorial Collection, Item ID#1299764. Name: Wienerová, Františka. Maiden name: Grűnhutová. Age: 53?. Birthplace: Prague, Czechoslovakia. Mother: Albina Grűnhutová. Father: -- Grűnhut. Spouse: divorced. Profession: Art historian. Place of residence before the war: Prague, Czechoslovakia. Place of residence during the war: Prague and then Terezín. Circumstances of death: Terezín Concentr. Camp. 1942. Informant: Thomas G. Winner, son.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} "United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6KMQ-8HY1 : 10 February 2023), Thomas Gustav Wiener, . Name and form dates: Application: THOMAS GUSTAV WIENER (Jul 1941), Application: THOMAS GUSTAV WINNER (Sep 1967), Death: THOMAS G WINNER (20 Apr 2004)
4. ↑ "Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK3B-KM1V : 23 February 2021), Thomas Wiener, 7 Sep 1945; citing M1463, Soundex Index to Canadian Border Entries through the St. Albans, Vermont, District, 1895-1924, 97, NARA microfilm publications M1461, M1463, M1464, and M1465 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, publication year); FHL microfilm 1,570,810. Age: 28y 1m; race/nationality: Czech/stateless; last permanent residence: Prague, Czechoslovakia. Previously in U.S. from Sep 1939-present at Cambridge, Mass. Contact at former residence: Priv. Jan Wiener, Czechoslovakia Air Forces, RAF, London, England. Contact in U.S.: Irene Wiener, wife, Wash., DC
5. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #210751563

See also:

• Wikipedia: Thomas G. Winner
• "United States Census, 1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4VJ-2ZK : Fri Oct 06 18:31:40 UTC 2023), Entry for Thomas Wiener, 1940.
• "United States 1950 Census", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6FMS-V6KD : Thu Oct 05 00:34:21 UTC 2023), Entry for Thomas G Wiener and Irene P Wiener, 18 April 1950.