Margarete Feldbau (verh. Schenkelbach, Shenk)

Born:	04-16-1915
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled student

Margarete FELDBAU (married SCHENKELBACH, SHENK, born on April 16^th, 1915 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), daughter of Josef Feldbau (merchant), lived in Vienna's 4^th district, Schelleingasse 22/9 and had graduated from highschool ("Elisabethgymnasium" in Vienna's 5^th district) on July 3^rd, 1934 and enrolled at the Philosophical School of the University of Vienna in the fall term of 1934/35 and took courses in History and English language and literature Studies. She was finally enrolled in the spring term 1938 in the 4^th and last year of her studies and had allready registered for the final examination ("Rigorosen") on February 18^th, 1938, but was no more allowed to take them any more after the "Anschluss" and had to quit her studies for racist reason and was forced to leave the university. Her younger sister Edith Feldbau (married: Rubin, 1916-2008), studying pharamceutics and chemistry, was also forced to leave the university for racist reason. Their older brother Alfred (1913-1997) had completed his medical studies shortly before and was able to emigrate with his doctoral degree. All three siblings emigrated - via different routes - to the USA, where an aunt of theirs lived in New York City. Margarete Feldbau was able to leave by train to London on July 31^st, 1938, and from there soon after continued on to the USA via Southhampton on the Cunard Line (SS Georgic) to New York City (arrival: August 14^th, 1938). On the ship she already met her sister again and in New York City also her brother. In Vienna, her parents' business and apartment were looted ("Aryanized"), but in 1940 she finally managed to emigrate to New York via Great Britain. On July 16^th, 1940, she married Otto Schenkelbach (1914-1985), also from Vienna, in Bronx, New York City, NY. Otto Schenkelbach had been imprisoned in the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps in 1938/39, but with the help of her sister was able to emigrate to the United States and arrived in New York on July 24^th, 1939. The couple changed the name "Schenkelbach" to "Shenk" near the time of their marriage, before naturalization in January 1944, and they had two children, daughter Janet and son George. Her husband was in the U.S. Army from November 1943 to January 1946 and participated in the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany. After retiring from the Army as a World War II veteran and awarded the Purple Heart, he founded and managed the Otto Shenk Brokerage Company in River Edge, New Jersey, where the family lived.

Margaret. F. Shenk, née Margarethe Feldbau, died on March 29^th, 2005, in Washington, D.C./USA.

Lit.: POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 381; Archive of the University of Vienna/ Nationale PHIL 1935-1938, PHIL Rigorosenprotocol 14220; video im USHMM; www.ancestry.de.

Herbert Posch