Ella Reiner (Lingens)

Born:	11-18-1908
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Ella REINER (married LINGENS), born on November 18^th, 1908 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Ernestinowo/Jugoslavia, Citizenship: Jugoslavia), daughter of Friedrich Reiner (Gutsbesitzer), lived in Vienna 8^th district, Piaristengasse 54, was enrolled finally in the fall term 1938/39 at the Medical School in the 4^th year of her studies (fall term 1938/39 was validated on April 11^th, 1939). She was deported to Auschwitz [Oswiecim/Poland] and Dachau because of her engagement in the antifascistic resistance-movement - 1945 she was liberated and later on she succeeded in finishing her medical studies and graduated at the University of Vienna. Ella Reiner has studied in Munich, Marburg and Vienna – first law and subsequently, in the 1930s, medicine. Her husband, Kurt Lingens, a German anti-fascist militant, was a physician. Thus, March 1938 became the point in time at which they were forced to define their position. They chose not to emigrate, but rather to stay in Vienna and support fellow students who were being persecuted for being Jewish. They helped them flee and offered them shelter in their house. Together with psychoanalyst and dissident Karl von Motesiczky, who had returned to Vienna from his Norwegian exile to help Jewish friends, they were denounced for trying to help two Jewish couples escape, who had been active in the Polish resistance. Karl von Motesiczky, Ella Lingens and her husband were arrested. Their son Peter, who would grow to become one of Austria’s best-known journalists, was three years of age at that time. After four months’ Gestapo detention, Ella Lingens was deported to Auschwitz, where she continued her efforts to save lives in the Polish sick barracks. Kurt Lingens survived the punishment battalion in the Soviet Union, while Karl von Montesiczky died in Auschwitz in 1943. Ella Lingens was moved to Dachau in December 1944 and lived to see liberation by American troops in 1945. Back in Vienna, her marriage broke apart. She finished her medical studies at the University of Vienna and subsequently worked in various contexts in clinics and in the public health sector. She later became Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry for Health and Environment Protection. Ella Lingens-Reiner and Kurt Lingens were awarded the medal of honour "Righteous Gentile" ["Gerechte unter den Voelkern"]. Ella Lingens-Reiner died in Vienna on December 30th, 2002. Her chronicle of the years of resistance and her experiences in the concentration camps "Prisoners of Fear – A Life of Resistance" ["Gefangene der Angst – Ein Leben im Zeichen des Widerstandes"] appeared in 2003.
In 2006 the high school in Vienna 21^st district, Gerasdorfer Strasse 103, was named "Ella Lingens Gymnasium" in honour of her. On February 28^th, 2012 a new street in the "Seestadt" in Aspern in the 22^nd district of Vienna (Donaustadt) was named "Ella-Lingens-Strasze" in honour of her.

Lit.: POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 343, 455; Ella Lingens, Gefangene der Angst. Ein Leben im Zeichen des Widerstandes, Vienna u. a. 2003; Yad Vashem, Exhibition "Flickers of Light. The story of six Righteous Among the Nations in Auschwitz"; Ella Lingens Gymnasium; KNIEFACZ/POSCH 2017c; www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at.

Doris Ingrisch | Herbert Posch