Gisela Stein was born in Vienna, Austria on Jan. 27, 1924. She went to the Schwarzwald Realgymnasium in Vienna until 1938, when she and her mother suffered from Nazi persecution. Stein left Vienna in May 1939 and arrived in the United States in June 1939. She finished her high school education in Brooklyn, NY, winning a city-wide essay contest on ‘National Unity’ in 1941. She acquired a Ph.D. degree in German literature from New York University and taught at Brooklyn College in New York. Gisela Stein died in 2005.
From the guide to the Gisela Stein Collection, 1938-1965, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)