Abstract
Victor Gold was born in Vienna in the summer of 1922. His father, Oscar Gold, was a successful lawyer. He was musical, was fascinated by numbers and became a discerning book collector. In 1914 he had married Emmy Kopperl. Emmy’s father, Sigmund, was a prosperous draper who specialized in British cloth. Robert Gold, Victor’s elder brother, was born in 1915, but by the time Victor was born seven years later the marriage between Oscar and Emmy was under severe strain. In 1924 Oscar left Emmy to set up house with Olga, who was eventually to become Oscar’s second wife. Robert and Victor remained with their mother. Throughout his childhood Victor saw his father regularly twice a week; sometimes Oscar would walk with him to his elementary school. His mother, Emmy, was a talented photographer and Victor himself recalls, ‘I remember as a small boy spending seemingly endless hours with her in dark rooms watching under red light the appearance of prints in the developing dish. I never developed a taste for dark rooms myself.’