Helene »Hella« FRÖHLICH, née MONDERER, born on 1 May 1871 in Tonie near Krakow (Galicia, Austria Hungary, later Poland), was Jewish and the wife of professional officer Leo FRÖHLICH, who was stationed in Neuhaus (Bohemia) and from 1913 in Salzburg, Captain of the Bohemian Infantry Regiment No. 75, he died in October 1914 while fighting on the Austro-Russian front.
The war widow Hella FRÖHLICH, who continued to live in Salzburg and had lived at Stelzhamerstraße 14 since the early 1920s, received a visit from a relative of her deceased husband in 1932, who reported on her encounter with Aunt Hella:
On arriving at the apartment, I was shocked to find uncle Leo’s polished riding boots, as well as his whip, in the foyer. Aunt said that she was very sorry uncle could not meet me this time but hoped the next time he would be back from Russia.
This was in 1932 and the war had ended in 1918! I found her a normal person, except for the fact that she had never accepted her husband’s death.
Helene FRÖHLICH, who, like her deceased husband, had not declared any religious affiliation when she registered in Salzburg, was categorised as »fully Jewish« under the Nazi regime and expelled from Salzburg on 20 February 1940.
Her beautiful flat at Stelzhamerstraße 14 was taken over by a Salzburg Gestapo officer.
Helene FRÖHLICH last lived in Vienna’s 2 nd district, Haidgasse 10/8, in a »collective flat«, the parties of which were destined for deportation.
The 71-year-old woman was deported to Theresienstadt on 20 August 1942 and on 18 December 1943 – on the same transport as the officer’s widow Klara KIESLER from Salzburg – to Auschwitz, where she was murdered.
Translation: Stan Nadel
Stumbling Stone
Laid 27.08.2008 at Salzburg, Stelzhamerstraße 14 (Ecke Gabelsbergerstraße)
Registration form of Helene Fröhlich
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer