Gisela Erdös (geb. Messinger)

Gisela Messinger was born into a Jewish family in Zombor [Sobor] in the province of Vojvodina in present-day Serbia. Nothing has been preserved about her childhood and youth. She later marries the son of the Jewish factory owner Ignaz Erdös, Geza Erdös. Geza Erdös' father runs the 'Wiener Königs Bäckerhefe Fabrik Ignaz Erdös u. Bruder'. The marriage remains childless.

On March 12, 1938, she has to witness the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the occupation of Austria, German legislation is adopted and with it the 'Nuremberg Race Laws', according to which Gisela Erdös and Geza Erdös are considered 'full Jews'.

The National Socialist German authorities force Gisela and Geza Erdös to take a Jewish war invalid and his wife into their home. However, they are not expelled from their home as a result.

After Geza Erdös' sister lives in Budapest, Gisela and Geza Erdös prepare their escape to Budapest. Geza brushes up his knowledge of the Hungarian language. In 1939, they try to leave for Hungary by ship. However, the captain of the ship refused them entry to Hungary. Their attempt to flee to Hungary by car is also stopped at the border station in Kittsee and they are sent back to Vienna.

On June 14, 1941, Geza Erdös travels to Budapest illegally by train, this time alone, as he no longer has a valid passport. Gisela stays behind in Vienna. On October 19, 1941, she was deported to the Litzmannstadt ghetto and murdered after October 19, 1941. An exact date of death is not known.