Mendel Zonabend

Mendel Zonabend was born in Wolbrom, in present-day Poland, the legitimate son of Abraham Izhok Zonabend and Mijam, née Rosenbaum. The family is Jewish. After completing his schooling, he learns the tailoring trade and becomes a master tailor. After the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the dismantling of the Dual Monarchy and the expulsion of the Habsburgs, he moved to Vienna with Fryma Kesten, who also came from Wolbrom, and opened a tailor's shop at Baumgasse 52 in Vienna's 3rd district, in the same building in which he lived.

In 1927, he married Fryma Kesten. The Zonabend couple were not politically active. On March 12, 1938, the couple witnessed the demise of 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 Racial Laws', according to which Mendel and Fryma Zonabend were considered 'full Jews'.

On 16 March 1938, Mendel Zonabend was murdered. On March 16, 1938, Mendel Zonabend was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on April 2, 1938 on the so-called 'Prominent Transport'. From there, he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp on September 23, 1938 and released from the camp on June 10, 1939. The Zonabend couple prepared their escape from occupied Austria.

On September 5, 1940 (the day they de-registered from their apartment in Vienna), the Zonabend couple fled to Palestine, which was under British mandate. After entering Palestine illegally and now stateless, they are arrested by the British authorities and interned in Mauritius, which is also under British rule, on December 27, 1940.

In Mauritius, Mendel and Fryma Zonabend experience the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. With the capitulation of the Third Reich, they are released. However, they decided not to return to Austria and instead immigrated to the United States on August 11, 1945, settling in San Diego, California. Mendel Zonabend worked there again as a tailor.