Katharina Grünfeld (geb. Winter)

Katharina Winter was born in Senitz [today: Senica, Slovakia] as the legitimate daughter of Josef Winter and his wife Irma, née Reichsfeld. Nothing is known about the childhood and youth of Katharina Winter, who was born into a Jewish family.

In 1934, she married Arnold Grünfeld, a Jewish general practitioner and dentist in Güssing. His practice was located at 17 Güssing.

On March 4, 1938, Arnold Grünfeld closed his practice and moved to Vienna. Officially, he wanted to relocate his medical practice to Vienna, but in reality, he intended to emigrate abroad with his wife.

On March 12, 1938, Katharina Grünfeld witnessed the downfall of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the occupation of Austria, German legislation was adopted, including the “Nuremberg Race Laws,” under which she and her husband were classified as “full Jews.” On March 16, 1938, her husband, Arnold Grünfeld, was arrested by the Gestapo on “suspicion of emigration.” At the time of his arrest, he had 4,852 Reichsmarks in his possession. On April 2, 1938, he was deported to the Dachau concentration camp on the so-called “Prominent Transport” and transferred from there to the Flossenbürg concentration camp on September 23, 1938. He was released on February 4, 1939, on the condition that he leave the country as soon as possible.

Arnold Grünfeld had to surrender his shares in apartment buildings in Vienna and Pressburg [today: Bratislava] amounting to 41,458, 33 Reichsmarks, his entire cash assets totaling 6,052 Reichsmarks, receivables amounting to 7,452 Reichsmarks, and his medical instruments valued at 3,500 Reichsmarks to the Nazi regime as a “Reich emigration tax” so that he and his wife would be allowed to leave the country. In total, the occupying forces robbed him of a fortune amounting to 58,462.33 Reichsmarks.

On February 14, 1939, Katharina Grünfeld and her husband received a visa for the United States of America and left Vienna penniless. They arrived in New York on March 31, 1939.

Arnold Grünfeld resumed his medical practice in New York. Katharina Grünfeld and her husband became U.S. citizens in 1944. In the United States, she goes by the name “Catherine Grunfeld.” She witnesses the liberation of Austria and the reestablishment of the Republic in April and May 1945, respectively, while in the United States. However, Catherine Grunfeld and her husband decide not to return to Austria but to remain in New York.

Catherine Grunfeld died in New York at the age of 93. She was laid to rest in a cemetery in New York.