Melanie Eitelberg

Melanie Eitelberg was born in Vienna as the legitimate daughter of the well-known ear specialist Abraham Josef Eitelberg and Jetty, née Pordes. A Jewish doctor from Tarnopol in Galicia [today: Tarnopil in Ukraine], Abraham Eitelberg graduated in medicine from the University of Vienna [today: Medical University of Vienna] in 1878 and, together with his wife Jetty, who was also Jewish, had four children, Maximilian, Cornelius and the twins Gertrude and Melanie.

Nothing has survived about Melanie Eitelberg's childhood and youth. Together with her twin sister, she worked at the Creditanstalt-Bankverein (CA). Both she and her sister Gertrude remain unmarried and live together in an apartment in Vienna's 1st district.

On March 12, 1938, Melanie Eitelberg witnesses the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the occupation of Austria, German legislation was adopted and with it the 'Nuremberg Race Laws', according to which Melanie Eitelberg was considered a 'full Jew'. She and her sister were immediately dismissed from the Creditanstalt-Bankverein (CA) and their assets were confiscated.

On November 23, 1941, Melanie Eitelberg was deported to the KZ Kauen