Hella Henrietta Pick

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(24 April 1929 – 4 April 2024) was an Austrian-born British journalist.

Biography

Hella Pick was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, into a middle-class Jewish family. Her parents divorced when she was three years old and she was brought up by her mother. Following Germany's

annexation of Austria The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany") arose after the 1871 unifica ...

in 1938, and a visit from the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

, Pick's mother decided to leave Austria. Pick was put on a ''

Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...

'' and arrived in Britain in March 1939. Her mother obtained a visa and joined her three months later. Pick attended school in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

and learned English. Feeling awkward about her identity, for a while she refused to speak German at all, even with her mother. In 1948, Pick became a British citizen and she no longer felt herself to be a refugee. Pick studied at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. She applied for a job at the United Nations, but was not accepted. In 1960, she became the UN correspondent of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' newspaper, where she was tutored by its chief US correspondent

Alistair Cooke Alistair Cooke, Order of the British Empire, KBE (né Alfred Cooke; 20 November 1908 – 30 March 2004) was a British-American writer whose work as a journalist, television personality and radio broadcaster was done primarily in the Unite ...

. At the time there were very few women correspondents, and women were disadvantaged and not treated as equals; for example, at ambassadorial dinners the women withdrew after the meal as was long the custom in the English-speaking world, while the men—including Pick's colleagues and competitors—discussed events over port and cigars. She also wrote for the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

''. She was honoured with a

in 2000 for her work as a journalist and writer. In Germany she became known for her appearance on the TV shows ''Internationales Frühschoppen'' and ''Presseclub''. Pick was the Arts & Culture Programme Director at the

Institute for Strategic Dialogue The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) is a political advocacy organization founded in 2006 by Sasha Havlicek and George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, George Weidenfeld and headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Activities ISD's core ...

, an independent think-tank based in London. She had dual British and Austrian citizenship, and regularly visited Austria, her "home away from home". The Guardian News & Media Archive contains an oral history of her time on the paper in the 1960s and 1970s and a written memoir. ''Invisible Walls'', an account of her life and career in journalism, was published in 2021. Pick died in London on 4 April 2024, at the age of 94.

Bibliography

*''

Simon Wiesenthal Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 190820 September 2005) was an Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture, and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration camp (la ...

: A Life in Search of Justice'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996 *''Guilty Victim – Austria from the Holocaust to

Haider Haider is a predominantly Arabic name, with alternative spellings such as Haidar, Haydar and Heydar. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Haider Shah 15th-century sultan of Kashmir *Haider Al-Abadi, Iraqi politician * Haider Acke ...

'', I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 2000 *''Invisible Walls'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2021

References

External links

Imperial War Museum interview, February 2001
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pick, Hella 1929 births 2024 deaths Alumni of the London School of Economics 20th-century British journalists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire The Guardian journalists Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United Kingdom Journalists from Vienna Kindertransport refugees Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Austrian journalists 21st-century British memoirists