Erna Barschak

Erna Barschak wrote a light-hearted illustrated book about her experience as a refugee.

“European husbands, after the first shock of seeing American professors help their wives wash the dishes, mind the baby, sweep the rugs, soon found they had to learn to fit into the routine themselves, since in America, college professors’ salaries are far from munificent.”

Erna Barschak, a protestant professor of education from Germany wrote a memoir called, “My American Adventure” in which she detailed her experience as a refugee scholar. She arrived on October 3, 1940 aboard the ship Samaria. On the afternoon after the boat started its voyage, the passengers were confined to cabins by an air-raid alarm. The Germans had dropped incendiary bombs on the ship and missed by a hair. Barschak felt that America meant a new life in safety. “No more bombs, no more Gestapo terror, no more of Nazi cruelty”.

She detailed the trouble she had finding a suitable position in the United States, including being offered a position as a housekeeper and warden in a girl’s dormitory. Finally, she received news that she would be working at Wilson. “Well, Miss Barschak, you will be glad to hear that I may have found you something. A fine girls’ college in Pennsylvania has asked for a European scholar to stay with them for one term.”

Having settled into academic life at Wilson, Barschak was amused by some of the differences between her new home and her old.

Some of the things she noticed included:

• “Drinking fountains everywhere - Americans seem to be especially fond of drinking water.”
• “The European housewife, less accustomed than her American counterpart to doing her own work, was surprised and sometimes vocal about the scarcity and high cost of domestic help.”
• “European husbands, after the first shock of seeing American professors help their wives wash the dishes, mind the baby, and sweep the rugs, soon found they had to learn to fit into the routine themselves, since in America, college professors’ salaries are far from munificent.”

Barschak found a permanent position at Miami University of Ohio.