Alumni news

Hella Pick CBE

Hella Pick CBE died on Thursday 4 April 2024. A former Guardian foreign correspondent and diplomatic editor, and the holder of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sussex, Hella was one of the most influential and prominent members of the Support Group and Advisory Board of the Centre for German-Jewish Studies. A crucial part of the centre since its inception in 1995, Hella was also a passionate advocate and friend of the University who remained closely involved with Sussex until her final days.

Along with Lord George Weidenfeld, Hella was instrumental in enabling the University to set up a Chair in Modern Israel Studies in 2013. Through her exceptional contacts, she also played a key role in securing support from the German and the Austrian governments to help the University establish the Weidenfeld Institute of Jewish Studies in 2019. The Institute brings together scholars from across the University who are engaged in various dimensions of Jewish Studies, aiming to examine the broader implications of the Jewish experience.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sasha Roseneil said: “Hella was an utterly remarkable woman, and it was a huge privilege to have met her on a number of occasions since I have been at Sussex. The legacy of her formidable intellect and her deep humanity will live on through her contribution to the work of the Weidenfeld Institute and her trailblazing writing and journalism.”

About Hella’s life and work

Hella was born in Vienna, into a middle-class Jewish family in the late 1920s. Following Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, and a visit from the Gestapo, Hella’s mother managed to get her on a Kindertransport to Britain in March 1939. Her mother obtained a visa and joined her three months later.

Hella studied at the London School of Economics, and, in 1960, she became the UN correspondent of the Guardian newspaper, where she worked under its chief US correspondent Alistair Cooke. Hella went on to spend more than 30 years reporting on foreign affairs for the Guardian. As a woman journalist who broke into the world of foreign affairs journalism in the 1950s, Hella was revered in the sector as a true pioneer. She had dual British and Austrian citizenship, and regularly visited Austria, her ‘home away from home.’

Hella’s successful and pioneering journalistic career won her numerous accolades across Europe. She was awarded honours in the UK, Austria and Germany, including a CBE in 2000. She received an Honorary Doctorate from Sussex in 2018 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to journalism, and this was an accolade of which she was particularly proud. Read an interview with Hella marking her doctorate.

Hella worked as a senior consultant for Lord Weidenfeld’s Club of Three and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, where she became Director of the Arts and Culture Programme. She was the author of Simon Wiesenthal – A Life in Search of Justice, and Guilty Victim – Austria from the Holocaust to Haider.

Hella Pick Lecture

In October 2023, Hella was honoured by Sussex and the Austrian Embassy with the first Hella Pick Lecture which took place at the Austrian Ambassador’s residence in London. The evening consisted of a panel discussion with prominent female journalists discussing women in journalism and engaging with Hella’s autobiography, Invisible Walls.

Invisible Walls was published in 2021 and gives an account of Hella’s life and career in journalism. Hella told the dramatic story of how she, as a Kindertransport survivor, won the trust and sometimes the friendship of world leaders. She spoke frankly of personal heartache and of a struggle over her Jewish identity. It is also the intensely touching story of how, despite a gift for friendship and internationally recognised achievements as a woman journalist, a continuing sense of personal insecurity confronted Hella throughout her life with a series of invisible walls.

Read the Guardian’s obituary of Hella.

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