Emilie Schenkl
Emilie Schenkl (26 December 1910 – 13 March 1996) was an Austrian stenographer, secretary and trunk exchange operator. She was the wife or the companion of Subhas Chandra Bose, an Indian nationalist leader.
Emilie Schenkl | |
|---|---|
Emilie Schenkl with Subhas Chandra Bose | |
| Born | 26 December 1910 Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 13 March 1996 (aged 85) Vienna, Austria |
| Nationality | Austro-Hungarian (1910–18) Austro-German (1918–19) Austrian (1919–96) |
| Occupation | Stenographer |
| Spouse | Subhas Chandra Bose (1937–1945; his death) |
| Children | Anita Bose Pfaff (b. 1942) |
Schenkl met Bose in 1934, and the two formed a romantic relationship while she worked for him as a secretary. She later became the mother of their daughter Anita Bose Pfaff during Bose's stay in Germany from 3 April 1941 until 8 February 1943. Following his departure from wartime Europe for Southeast Asia, Schenkl and her baby daughter were left without economic support. Bose, who thereafter tried to oppose British rule in India militarily with Japanese patronage, died in a plane crash soon after the Japanese surrender in August 1945.
In 1948, Schenkl and her daughter were met by Bose's brother Sarat Chandra Bose and his family in an emotional meeting in Vienna. In the post-war years, Schenkl worked shifts in the trunk exchange and was the main breadwinner of her family, which included her daughter and her mother.