Eugene (John) Heimler (1922 90) was born in Szombathely in Western Hungary. He attended the local grammar school and matriculated from the Jewish Gymnasium in Budapest. In 1944, after the German invasion of Hungary, the Heimler family were deported. Eugene Heimler was sent to Auschwitz, Buchenwald and other camps. Heimler returned to Hungary after the war and studied for a diploma in social science at the University of Budapest. He moved to England in 1946 and enrolled at the London School of Economics, from which he obtained a Certificate of Trade Union Studies in 1950. Heimler trained as a psychiatric social worker in 1951 3, and he worked for Middlesex County Council, 1953 65, initially in that capacity, but later as county social work organiser. During this period Heimler conducted research into long term unemployment (the Hendon experiment). In 1964, Heimler was appointed as consultant to the World Health Organisation in Geneva; he was delegated as a consultant on community care to the United States of America. On 1 April 1965, he transferred to the London Borough of Hounslow and became involved with the community care project, the Hounslow project, which centred on research into the primary prevention of social breakdown and into the development and use of a scale of social functioning, which became known as the Heimler scale. He became a Visiting Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, and the University of Saskatoon. In 1970, Heimler was appointed as Professor of Human Social Functioning at the University of Calgary. Heimler's publications include three books of poetry (OROK HAJNAL (Budapest, 1939); VALLOMAS A SZOHOZ (Budapest, 1943); NAPFOGYATKOZAS UTAN (Budapest, 1946)), his account of his Holocaust experiences, NIGHT OF THE MIST (London, 1959), and A LINK IN THE CHAIN (London, 1962), a reaction to Communist power in Hungary and an account of his professional life in London, besides publications relating to his work on social functioning.
From the guide to the Papers of E.Heimler, 1939-1993, (University of Southampton Libraries Special Collections)
