Lingens-Reiner, Ella (1908–2002)

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Lingens-Reiner, Ella (1908–2002)

Austrian political activist and physician. Name variations: Ella Lingens. Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1908; died Dec 31, 2002.

When Dollfuss crushed the Social Democratic Party (1934), joined the resistance circle that formed around Otto and Käthe Leichter, which remained in contact with the Social Democratic leadership that had fled to Czechoslovakia and France; was arrested by the Gestapo (1942); imprisoned at both Dachau and Auschwitz, became an indispensable member of the camp social system as a physician; served for many years as president of the organization of former Auschwitz prisoners (Österreichische Lagergemeinschaft Auschwitz).

See also memoir Prisoners of Fear (Gollancz, 1948); and Women in World History.