| Born: | 08-12-1919 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Susanne HABER (m. TENNENBAUM, later TILDEN), born on August 12th, 1919 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of Sigmund (Zysie) Haber (1887-1940, business journalist and court interpreter) and Frieda (Freuda) Haber, née Lagstein (1887-1932), lived in Vienna's 2nd district, Große Mohrengasse 3B/21. She had successfully passed the school-leaving examination ("Matura") at the Chajesrealgymnasium in 1937, began to study medicine at the University of Vienna in the fall term of 1937/38, and was last enrolled in the 1st year of her studies at the Medical School in the spring term of 1938.
Under National Socialism, after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, she was forced to discontinue her studies and leave the University of Vienna for racist reasons.
She had to flee Vienna and on May 10th, 1938, she applied for emigration to the welfare center of the Jewish Community (IKG) Vienna (her older brother Wilhelm, born in 1911, was matriculation officer of the IKG Vienna). In the corresponding questionnaire, she stated that, in addition to the medical studies she had also completed courses in cooking and dietary cuisine at the Czeczowiczka cooking school in Vienna's 2nd district, Praterstraße 66, as well as a manicure course with certificates. She stated that she spoke English, Hebrew and German and had a valid passport. She also stated that she wanted to emigrate to North or South America, Australia, Palestine or some other country, primarily to Panama, where a cousin, Sigmund Gottesmann, lived in Fort Davis.
She actually managed to leave for Panama in 1938 and lived in Colón, working as a saleswoman and awaiting the arrival of her entry papers to the United States. Her father, who had been ill for some time, was also able to emigrate to Colón, where he died in January 1940. Susanne Haber was already in the U.S. by this time: she had managed to emigrate from the port of Cristóbal/Panama to the U.S. in the spring of 1939 on the SS Santa Inez, arriving in New York, NY on July 4th, 1939. In the 1940 New York census, she stated that she worked as an auxiliary nurse ("practical nurse") in a hospital.
On August 23rd, 1941, in New York, she married Jacob Isaac Tennenbaum (1917-1988), who had emigrated from Vienna and later became Jack I. Tennenbaum aka Jack Tilden. He had already been drafted into the U.S. Army in February 1941 and became a U.S. citizen in May 1943. On September 15th, 1942, son Stephen Young Tennenbaum, later Tilden, was born. Susanne Haber Tennenbaum, was naturalized on January 3rd, 1944 job title at the time: stenographer. The family then lived in New York City at 1646 Weeks Ave, New York Bronx, NY after the war ended.
The family later changed the surname from Tennenbaum to Tilden and Suzanna H. Tilden and Jack Tilden probably lived in Latin America for a time in the 1950s before returning to the U.S., where husband Jack Tilden died in Suffern, NY, in 1988.
For the time being, little more is known about the further life of Suzanne H. Tilden (Tennenbaum), née Susanne Haber - she probably died after 2004.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937-1938; Municipal and Provincial Archives of Vienna WStLA/Historical Central Registration of Viennese inhabitants request MA 8-B-MEW-621055-2023 and MA 8-B-MEW-621185-2023; Archive of the Jewish Community of Vienna/Birth- and Deathrecords and emigration-registry; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 398; www.myheritage.at, www.genteam.at, www.ancestry.de, www.familysearch.org.
Ute Sabath
