| Born: | 02-28-1918 |
| Faculty: | Philosophical School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Ilse MEILER (married GRAINGER), born on February 28th, 1918 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), daughter of Friedrich Meiler (lawyer, 1882–1972) and Anna Meiler (née Utitz, divorced Bing, 1885–?), lived in Vienna's 9th district, Garnisongasse 3/4/17. She was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Philosophical School in the 2nd year of her studies and took courses in Art History and History.
In 1938, after the takeover of power of National-Socialism she was forced to quit his studies for racist reason and to leave the University of Vienna.
Her father was forced to give up his law practice, but on December 29th, 1938, he was still admitted as Jewish counsel in the "Ostmark" until March 31st, 1939, and emigrated to England with his wife in April 1939.
Ilse Meiler had already emigrated to England in September 1938. She married the Vienna-born Edward S. Grainger (1917–1992, U.S. Army, U.S. citizen since November 6th, 1942) in Ploughley on December 3rd, 1943, and became a U.S. citizen herself on May 26th, 1949. On June 17th, 1947, their son Andrew R.(onald) Grainger was born in New York. The family commuted between England and America in the 1950s, and also lived in Vienna again for two years in 1954-1956 (Vienna's 19th district, Schreiberweg). In the 1980s and 1990s Ilse M. Grainger lived in Chevy Chase MD/USA.
Ilse M. Grainger, née Meiler, died on October 22nd, 2021 in the USA and is burried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
She is commemorated at the University of Vienna at the monument "Denkmal für Ausgegrenzte, Emigrierte und Ermordete des Kunsthistorischen Instituts der Universitaet Wien" at the Campus of the University of Vienna (2008), in the "Memorial Book for the Victims of National Socialism at the University of Vienna in 1938" (2009) and at the "Memorial to the History Students and Teachers of the University of Vienna Expelled under National Socialism | When Names Shine" (2022) in the main building of the university, on the first floor.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Viennna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1937–1938; Austrian State Archive OeStA/AdR/EuRAngel/VVSt/VA 35326; OeStA/AdR/06-Finanzen/Hilfsfonds; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 437; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2010, 246; monument/exhibition "Wiener Kunstgeschichte gesichtet" 2008; exhibition "Ausgegrenzt, Vertrieben, Ermordet" 2010; Denkmal für die im Nationalsozialismus vertriebenen Geschichte-Studierenden und -Lehrenden der Universität Wien 2022; www.ancestry.de; POSCH/FUCHS 2022, 123.
Herbert Posch
