Memory has always fascinated me. Most of us can remember our first days in high school, our first date, our first kiss. [Memory] makes a major impact on our lives, and it’s really the mental process that carries us from one event to another. And although it’s hard to ascribe our later intellectual development to the early events of our life, I can’t help thinking that one of the reasons I worked on memory is because of my early life experience. One of the great aphorisms of post-holocaust Jewry is never forget, to remember all the time to fight against racism and hatred. And certainly my early experiences in Vienna have had a lasting impact on my life.

I was born in Vienna on November 7^th, 1929 to Hermann and Charlotte Kandel, two wonderful people who actually were born in Poland. My mother was born in Kolomyia from middle class, quite cultured family. My father came from Olesko from a rather poor family. They both came to Vienna at very early age, before the First World War broke out.

My father, in fact, fought in the First World War, in the Austro-Hungarian army, as soon as he graduated from high school. My mother graduated from high school, actually had one year of college. My father, as soon as he graduated from high school, started to go into business by himself. My parents met [and married] in 1923. My brother, Lewis, was born [in 1924] and I was born five years later in 1929.

My father owned a small toy store that my mother [also] worked in on a Kutschkermarkt. This was a market that sold foods of various kinds, but in the back of it was stores, and my father had a small store that still exists there. And he made a reasonable living, even though we were never wealthy. And we had a very small but nice apartment in Severingasse. And since both my parents worked in the store, we always had a housekeeper, maid, sort of taking care of us.