Hanau, Stella

Stella Bloch was born July 24, 1890, in Manhattan, New York. Shortly before entering Barnard college she met Hella Bernays, niece of Sigmund Freud, who became and remained her best friend throughout life. In 1914 Stella married Leo Hanau. After World War I the couple set up a joint household with the Bernays family. During the 1920s, Stella was active in experimental theaters in lower Manhattan. Stella Hanau and Hella Bernays were also active in the women's suffrage movement, and Stella was active in the American Birth Control League, the Works Progress Administration, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Hanau and Bernays also shared a common interest in psychiatry and fostering community mental health programs.

In the1940s, Stella Hanau served as editor for the Works Progress Administration Writers Program and wrote publicity for the Department of Commerce and the War Production Board. In 1948, the Loyalty Board of the Department of Commerce investigated Stella Hanau. The board scrutinized her friends and acquaintances, affiliations with left wing politics, and her Jewish heritage. Stella Hanau was cleared of all charges in 1949. During the post-war years, Stella Hanau was self-employed doing editorial and rewrite work for professionals in the area of psychiatry and for the American Psychiatric Association.

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