Ella Lingens

Ella Lingens-Reiner, M.D. (18 November 1908 – 30 December 2002) was an Austrian physician and is one of the Righteous Among Nations honored by Yad Vashem. She and her husband Kurt Lingens M.D., with Baron Karl von Motesiczky, harbored multiple Jews in their home during the Second World War. She was sent to Auschwitz by the Gestapo in 1942 and then later was imprisoned at Dachau. She survived the war and became president of the organization of former Auschwitz prisoners, Österreichische Lagergemeinschaft Auschwitz.

Early life Born on 18 November 1908 in Vienna, Lingens had a doctoral degree in law and studied medicine at the University of Vienna. She married Kurt Lingens, another physician who was active in an anti-fascist organisation, on 7 March 1938. Together they had a son, Peter Michael Lingens, on 8 August 1939. During the Austrian Civil War and the Social Democratic Party falling to the Austro-fascist state, Ella Lingens joined a circle of resistance fighters formed around Otto and Käthe Leichter.

During the war

Arrest

When the Nazis annexed Austria, Ella became involved in the direct aid of Jews. During the Kristallnacht riots, she hid ten Jews in her room. She was a ministerial advisor at the Federal Ministry for Health and Environmental Protection. She published a memoir of her time imprisoned, titled Prisoners of Fear, in 1948, which described many of the horrors of the camps and the small moments of humanity she found there. She served for many years as president of the organization of former Auschwitz prisoners (Osterreichische Lagergemeinschaft Auschwitz). She was buried on 10 January 2003 in the Vienna Central Cemetery in an honorary grave (group 40, number 90).

Legacy

Publications

Other

A Viennese AHS in Floridsdorf (Gerasdorfer Straße 103) has been called Ella Lingens Gymnasium since 2006. In 2012, Ella-Lingens-Strasse in Vienna- Donaustadt (22nd district) was named after her. In Munich, a square in the district of Giesing was named Ella-Lingens-Platz after her in 2016.