Pauline Drahos-Fleissig (geb. Aufrichtig)

Pauline Aufrichtig was born in Vienna as the legitimate daughter of Siegmund Aufrichtig and Hermine, née Kahn. Nothing is known about the Jewish Pauline's childhood and youth.

In 1907, she married the academic Catholic painter Adolf Drahos-Fleissig and became the mother of their daughter Edith. While her husband was a well-known painter, she worked as a piano teacher.

From 1933, Pauline Drahos-Fleissig and her husband Adolf became involved in the Vaterländische Front and actively opposed the German plans to occupy Austria.

On March 12, 1938, the Drahos-Fleissig couple witnessed 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 Pauline Drahos-Fliessig was considered a 'full Jew'. The situation is also critical for Adolf Drahos-Fleissig due to his anti-Nazi activities before the occupation of Austria.

For this reason, Pauline and Adolf Drahos-Fleissig, as well as Edith and her husband Sigmund Weiss, decide to emigrate to Uruguay, where a sister of Pauline Drahos-Fleissig lives.

On October 21, 1938, they reach Belgium via the Netherlands, where they wait for exit visas to Uruguay. They are received in Brussels by a Jewish emigrant organization.

On 10 May 1940, the German Wehrmacht launches an attack on Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. With the occupation of Brussels on May 16, 1940, Pauline and Adolf Drahos-Fleissig were arrested and deported to a camp in St. Cyprien-Argelés in Vichi-France. Her husband Adolf Drahos-Fleissig died there on August 13, 1941 due to the prison conditions. Pauline Drahos-Fleissig must have been in the camp until liberation on August 29, 1944.

After liberation from the camp, she moved to Montauban in France, where she witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic in April 1945. In 1947, she moved back to her hometown of Vienna, where she joined the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich.

Pauline Drahos-Fleissig died in Vienna at the age of 68 and was laid to rest in Vienna's Central Cemetery.