Stella Weiss (verh. Pecker)

Born:	06-09-1916
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled student

Stella WEISS, née PECKER, born on June 9^th, 1916 in Vienna (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), daughter of Robert Weiss (senior accountant, retired) and Amalie Weiss, née Lisak (1881-1955), lived in Vienna's 6^th district, Gumpendorfer Strasse 63E. In the summer of 1934, she had passed her school-leaving examination (Matura) at the Mariahilfer Maedchenrealgymnasium in Vienna's 6^th district. In the fall term of 1934/35, she began to study Romance languages and literature at the University of Vienna and also took courses in history, art history, German studies and musicology. She was last enrolled in the fall term 1937/38 at the School of Philosophy in the 4^th and last year and took lectures in Romance studies and history. She registered for the final examinations (viva voce/"Rigorosen") as early as December 23rd, 1937, entered for the first Rigorosum with Prof. Karl Buehler and Richard Meister on January 29th, 1938, but had to rehearse with Karl Buehler, which would have been possible on April 29th, 1938 at the earliest, but after the "Anschluss" she was no longer allowed to enter for the examinations and was forced to discontinue her studies and leave the University of Vienna for racist reasons She civilly married Dr. Friedrich Pecker (1909-1972) at the Vienna-Leopoldstadt registry office on November 22nd, 1938, who had received his "Dr.med." degree from the University of Vienna at the end of 1936 and had worked as a general practitioner in Vienna until 1938. They lived with his parents in Vienna's 2nd district, Glockengasse 9a until 1940/41, then in various sublets, finally for a few months in Vienna's 2nd district, Untere Augartenstrasse 25/21. There Stella and Friedrich Pecker were arrested by the Gestapo in April 1941, imprisoned for a week in Vienna's 2nd district, Castellezgasse and then both deported to Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski/Poland and imprisoned in the ghetto there, later a labor camp, until August 1944. Her husband provided medical care for the prisoners. When the camp was dissolved, they were separated. Her husband was deported to the concentration camps Auschwitz III Monowitz, Mittelbau-Dora and the satellite camp Ellrich-Juliushütte (August 1944-January 1945) and last to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen (January 1945), where he was liberated in May 1945. At the end of 1945 he returned to Vienna where Stella Pecker had already arrived in the middle of the year. From the spring of 1946 they both lived with her mother Amalie Weiss in Vienna's 1st distrct, Elisabethstrasse 15/11, and in 1948 their daughter Eva Pecker (m. Kugler) was born. From the end of 1952 they lived in Vienna's 6th district, Lehargasse 1/3, where her husband also had his practice as a general practitioner until his retirement - he died on January 20, 1972. Stella Pecker worked as an X-ray assistant.

Lit.: Archives of the University of Vienna / enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1934-1938, final examinatin registry and file ("Rigorosenakt und -protokoll") PHIL 14083; Austrian State Archive (OeStA) / Archives of the Republic (AdR) / E-uReang / Relief Fund; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 498; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.de; information from Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 09/2021.

Herbert Posch