Hilda Braun (Fleischner, Slaughter)

Hilda BRAUN (married: FLEISCHNER, later SLAUGHTER), born on April 5^th, 1915 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of Hugo Braun (883-1944, civil servant, Berndorf II/Lower Austria, Hauptstrasse 50) and Ida Braun, née Czuczka (1893-1944), lived in Vienna's 9^th district, Glasergasse 3, was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 5^th and last year of her studies .

She had married her fellow student Otto Fleischner on December 14^th, 1937 in the Vienna City Temple. At the time of the Anschluss, she was on the verge of registering for the final examinations ("Rigorosen") and was one of the few to be admitted for the remaining summer semester under the 2% numerus clausus for Jewish students on 30 May 1938. Her husband, at the same stage of his studies, did not succeed (she was able to cite her father, who had fought at the front in the First World War). About three weeks later, however, she applied to resign her admission and transfer it to her husband, which Dean Pernkopf approved on June 26^th, 1938 after consulting the Nazi student leadership. Her husband was thus able to continue studying and she received her leaving certificate a week later on July 9^th 1938 and had to leave the university without a degree. But her husband was also unable to complete his studies in the few weeks he had gained.

Hilda Fleischner and her family had to flee Vienna and she and her husband managed to leave the country in time to emigrate to the British Mandate of Palestine [Israel] with a visa for Shanghai, where they both arrived in Haifa on July 8^th, 1938 and were able to work as masseurs for the next three years, although not as doctors.
Their parents were unable to leave Austria in time and were forcibly relocated from Berndorf to Vienna in September 1938. Attempts to escape to Shanghai in 1939 failed, and on October 1^st, 1942 they were deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt [Terezín/Czech Republic], and on October 28^th, 1944 to the Auschwitz concentration camp [Oswiecim/Poland], where they were murdered, along with their parents-in-law.

Otto and Hilda Fleischner lived and worked in Tel Aviv and became citizens of Palestine in May 1941 Her husband Otto was in the British Army Medical Corps in Palestine 1942-46, the last two years on a hospital ship. She fell in love with a Royal British Army officer and divorced her first husband in the autumn of 1945 and married @ Slaughter and contrary to initial plans to remain in Palestine, she followed her second husband and travelled alone as a soldier's wife ("R.A.F Family") on the ship M.V. Carnarvon Castle from Port Said/Egypt via Malta to Southampton/England, where she arrived on May 24^th, 1946, as a Palestinian citizen with the intention of settling permanently in England. She did not declare her profession as a doctor or masseuse, but as a housewife.

Little is known about her subsequent life.

Hilda Slaughter, née Braun, divorced Fleischner, died in May 1984 in Brentwood, Essex, England, United Kingdom.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937–1938, MED GZ 1250 ex 1937/38, Rectorate GZ 722/II ex 1937/38; Arolsen Archives/; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 384; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.de; www.myheritage.at; www.geni.com; DÖW-Opferdatenbank; Yad Vashem | Shoah Victims' Names.

Herbert Posch