| Born: | 02-26-1915 |
| Faculty: | Philosophical School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Valerie DUKATENZÄHLER (married LETZTER / LESTER), born on February 26th, 1915 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of Max/Meier Dukatenzähler (1875-1940, merchant) and Irene Dukatenzähler, née Mannheim (1874-1933), lived in Vienna's 7th district, Zieglergasse 5. She graduated from the high school of the Verein für realgymnasialen Mädchenunterricht in Vienna's 8th district, Albertgasse 38, and passed the final examination ("Reifepruefung"/"Matura") there in 1934 and began to study at the University of Vienna and was last enrolled in the fall term of 1937/38 at the Philosophical School in the 4th and final year of her studies, taking lectures in psychology, educational sciences and ethnology.
After the Anschluss in March 1938, she was forced to discontinue her studies for racist reasons. Her application to continue studying for at least three more months under the 2%-numerus clausus for Jewish students was also rejected. She had to leave the University of Vienna without graduation (leaving certificate ("Abgangszeugnis") issued at December 3rd, 1938).
Valerie Dukatenzähler had to flee Vienna and she tried to emigrate to either England, USA, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Australia or Canada at the end of May 1938 by applying for support from the emigration department of the Jewish Community Vienna. In order to increase her chances of emigration, she had, in addition to her psychological studies and her internship in a kindergarten, her educational experience with children who were difficult to raise, and private tutoring, also completed courses in fashion and handbag production. A second application at the end of January 1939 shows how the economic situation had changed catastrophically, emigration became more urgent and the only goal was to go to England as an educator or psychologist, together with her family.
She managed to leave for Great Britain in time in 1939, which the rest of her family did not manage to do. Her father died in Vienna in 1940, her brother Imre Emmerich Dukatenzähler (1904-1942) died in Vienna in 1942 at the age of only 38, her sister Hilda Dukatenzähler (1908-1942) was deported from Vienna to Izbica/Poland in April 1942 - she did not survive - and her sister Elsa Sekules née. Dukatenzähler (1909-1990), married to Abraham Sekules (1901-1980) since 1937, was deported from Vienna to Riga/Latvia in January 1942, but survived and after the liberation in 1945 she emigrated with her husband to Sweden.
Valerie Dukatenzähler could not continue her almost completed psychology studies in England under the conditions of emigration. She married Vienna born Josef Letzter / Lester (1913-2001) in the summer of 1939 in Paddington, London, where they lived in 124/126 Westbourne Terrace and they went to Belfast, Northern Ireland/Great Britain, where her husband worked as textile mechanic in the Messrs. Ulster Viennese Fabrics Ltd. He was interned as enemy alien from June 1940 up to his release in May 1941. They had two children. In 1950 they became British citizens and changed the surname from "Letzter" to "Lester".
Valerie Lester (Letzter), née Dukatenzähler, died at the age of 82 in April 1998 in Bromley, Greater London.
Lit: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1935-1938; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 375; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.de; www.myheritage.at; www.geni.com; www.findbuch.at; spurenimvest.de/2021/07/02/sekules-else/; information by courtesy of Dr. Konstanze Kropatschek, Vienna 07/2022.
Herbert Posch
