Katz, Eileen

Deafened as a small child from unknown causes; attended first the Fulham Palace School for the Deaf and then the Residential School for Jewish Deaf Children, both in London. When World War II broke out, she and the rest of her schoolmates were evacuated to the countryside and had to move several times under threat of German bombing and invasion. However, she understood almost nothing of what was going on. They were joined by refugee children from the Israelite School for the Deaf in Berlin. Postwar, she emigrated to America and met and married Fred Katz, also deaf. She became a seamstress, using skills learned from her tailor father, and in New York established her own dressmaking business. She also taught some children and adults, both deaf and hearing.