Pauline (Paula) Fenz (geb. Bartek)

Pauline 'Paula' Bartek was born in Jedenspeigen in Lower Austria as the legitimate daughter of railroad official Lorenz Bartek and his wife Pauline, née Schier. Nothing has been preserved about her childhood and youth.

In the 1920s at the latest, she moved to Vienna and opened a fashion store at Praterstraße 64 in Vienna's 2nd district. She did not become politically active.

On March 12, 1938, Paula Bartek witnessed the downfall of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. In July 1938, she married Gustav Fenz and subsequently became the mother of two children.

Maria Berger denounces Paula Fenz to the Gestapo. She is reported at large. At a trial before the Vienna Regional Court on February 16, 1944, she is sentenced to 18 months in prison for 'defeating the military'. She begins her sentence on June 5, 1944. At the same time, her trade license was revoked and her business closed.

Paula Fenz was freed from prison by the Russian army on 5 April 1945 and witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. She joins the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich. She receives her trade license again and opens her business.