A linguist acclaimed for risking her life during World War Two has passed away at the age of 89.
Walburga von Raffler-Engel, a former professor at Vanderbuilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, spoke eight languages and was known globally for her work in non-verbal communication.
Though she was born in Munich, Germany, she fled to Italy at the outbreak of World War Two. As a Jew, she had lost many family members to the concentration camps, but she bravely joined the resistance, first in Italy and then in Switzerland. There she defied Hitler’s forces, saving lives by sewing transcriptions of important information into the coat linings of couriers, thereby helping them to escape detection.
Von Raffler-Engel returned to Italy to study, and moved to the US in 1949. The pinnacle of her academic career was her years at Vanderbilt, from 1965 until her retirement in 1986. She continued as a senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, and remained Emeritus Professor of Linguistics until her death.
During her lifetime, her story was archived by the United States National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.
Colleagues praised her for her character, noting that she had given generously of her time to help newcomers to the US to adjust to the new culture and language.
She died on November 28 in San Antonio, Texas, where she had moved to be with her children, and was buried with her late husband in Baltimore, Maryland.
06 December 2009
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