In his letter to Deputy Engineer Robert Stricker, noted Zionist leader in Austria, Hans Herzl notified him of his joining the Catholic Church and asked him whether he would still continue the negotiations concerning the publication of his translation of his father’s Diary.
The fact that Hans Herzl deserted Judaism and became a Catholic was known on the same day of its occurrence to the family of Engineer Johann Krementsky, close friends of the Herzl family. Johann Krenentsky is a well-known Jewish manufacturer of Vienna. The fact of Hans’ conversion was however kept secret in the hope that Hans would yet be persuaded to return to Judaism. When asked why he did not have consideration for the memory of his father Hans replied excitedly: “This is my private affair; and besides, I acted according to my conviction. My soul now finds rest.”
Close observers of the Herzl family here, after the death of the great Zionist leader, did not express any surprise over Hans’ action. It is stated that the mother of the three children implanted in them a contempt for the Zionist movement, for Judaism, and disregard for their father. It is now revealed that one of Theodor Herzl’s daughters, a divorcee, resident during the war in Graz, would publicly laugh at her father’s limitless devotion to the Zionist cause and caused public indignation by mistreating the picture of her late father.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
