Hella (Helena) Schiff [Hatschek]
born Aussig (Ústi nad Labem) September 5, 1887; died after November 3, 1941 (holocaust)
Documents associated with this person:
Daughter of Emilie and Wilhelm Schiff, younger sister of Jeanette Schenker.
Life Summary
Helena Schiff was one of ten children born to Emilie Schiff, her siblings being: Jeanette [m. Kornfeld; m. Schenker] (1874–1945) – Louis (b 1875) – Emil (b. 1877) – Friedrika (Frieda) [m. Glässner] (1878–1933) – Emma [m. Winternitz] (1880–c.1943), Klara [m. Hatschek] (1881–1939) – Rosa (Růžena Rejle) [m. Weil] (1883–1942) – Victor (Viktor) and Paul (b. 1895) (wife Anna Schiff).
Nothing is known of Hella’s childhood or education. In 1928, Victor reports that she was living in poverty. She married Emil Hatschek (brother of Oskar Hatschek who married Klara Schiff). Emil is described by Rosa Weil as a “Lump,” and in August 1935 appears to have left his wife and child. The couple had a daughter, Lotte, who visited the Schenkers in Vienna on several occasions, on one of which Heinrich reacted: “evidently the best informed sister, simple, kind-hearted, domestic, with an aptitude for education, but without using this as a pretext for creating difficulties” (diary, April 4, 1929). Her address in 1935 was: Prostějov (Moravia), Pod Nošitěm 71, and in 1938 Teplitz-Schönau, Königstraße 19.
She is reported as having died sometime after November 3, 1941 in the holocaust, whereabouts unknown. Auschwitz Museum kindly reports that no record of her presence or death in the camp survives, but that “during the evacuation and liquidation of KL Auschwitz by order of the camp authorities all important documentation including prisoners’ personal files, were destroyed,” (email May 21, 2024).
Correspondence
Heinrich’s diary records correspondence between Hella and Jeanette between 1928 and 1934, none of which is known to survive. No photographs are known to have been preserved.
Contributor
- Ian Bent