Emilie Schenkl

Emilie Schenkl (26 December 1910 – March 1996) was the wife, or companion, of Subhas Chandra Bose—a major leader of Indian nationalism—and the mother of their daughter, Anita Bose Pfaff (born 29 November 1942). Schenkl, an Austrian, and her baby daughter were left without support in wartime Europe by Bose, after he moved from Germany to Southeast Asia in February 1943 and subsequently died at the end of the war. In 1948, both were met by Bose's brother Sarat Chandra Bose and his family in Vienna in an emotional meeting. In the post-war years, Schenkl worked shifts in the Trunk Office and was the main breadwinner of her family, which included her daughter and her mother.

Early life

Emilie Schenkl was born in Vienna on 26 December 1910 in an Austrian Catholic family. Paternal granddaughter of a shoemaker and the daughter of a veterinarian, she started primary school late—towards the end of the Great war—on account of her father's reluctance for her to have formal schooling. Her father, moreover, became unhappy with her progress in secondary school and enrolled her in a nunnery for four years. Schenkl decided against becoming a nun and went back to school, finishing when she was 20. The Great Depression had begun in Europe; consequently, for a few years she was unemployed.