Erna Katzenell Collection

Erna Katzenell was born in Vienna, Austria, on May 12, 1908, as the daughter of Leopold and Sofie Kohn. Until the annexation of Austria (Anschluss) in 1938 she was employed in handicraft, until her boss was forced to close his business. In the course of the Aryanization process (Arisierung), her family's business as well as their apartment were taken by the Nazis. Erna and her sister Käthe tried to emigrate to Sussex, England, but after the war broke out, their plans were cancelled. Käthe was forced to work in a mending shop (Kunststopferei), and Erna was sent to a forced labor camp in Germany. Eventually, Käthe, her brother Paul and their mother were sent to Majdanek in Poland, Gurs internment camp in France and Theresienstadt in today's Czech Republic, respectively, where they all perished. Another sister, Rudi, immigrated with her husband to the U.S. via Bolivia.

In 1942, Erna was ordered to return to Vienna and report to the Gestapo, but instead, she turned to her parents' friends, the Kuttelwascher family, who took her in. Otto and Mina (also: Hermine) Kuttelwascher obtained for her a false identification card as Erna Fröhlich, who allegedly worked for the German state railway (Deutsche Reichsbahn), although she hardly ever left the apartment. The Kuttelwaschers kept Erna safe from May 1942 until the end of the war in 1945.

In February 1948, Erna immigrated to the United States as a Displaced Person. She lived in New York, where she met her husband Max Katzenell. They both worked in the fashion industry.

Erna Katzenell died on February 27, 2002.