Eric Max Bergtraun interview and transcript, April 12, 1997

Eric Max Bergtraun (1925-2008) was born in Vienna. His Catholic mother converted to Judaism when she married his Jewish father, who was an insurance salesman. He was Bar Mitzvah in February 1938. The family sailed on the “Conte Biancamano” to Shanghai in early 1939. He attended the Shanghai Jewish School, then apprenticed as a motor winder. He joined the Boy Scouts and became a lifetime Scout leader. He worked for Larsen and Trock as an engineering apprentice and trained at the ORT school. The family had to move into the Designated Area after February 1943. After the war’s end, he worked as an engineer for the US Army Air Force and for Caltex. He came to San Francisco in 1948, worked for Amtson Lines and Fedeli Electric, and earned his diploma at Commerce High School. He worked as a manager for Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor, managing the building of plants in the US and abroad. He was married to Polly Bergtraun (1925-2014) for 51 years, whose Dutch family hid from the Nazis. They moved to Los Altos in 1963. He helped establish the Association of Facilities Engineers (AFE), and was awarded the Institute's highest honor of Fellow in 1977.