Gallery Don Gabor’s mother, Trude Blau was the inspiration for Greta Kolbe, the heroine of Vienna on Fire. She and a partner skate in front of the Vienna town hall in early March 1938. Trude’s parents, Otto and Lili Blau, were the inspiration for Oskar and Lotte Kolbe in Vienna on Fire. Trude, born April 9, 1920, with her mother, Lili Family portrait of Otto and Lili Blau, Grandmother, Lydia the dog, and Trude Lili (standing) ran the Blau Parfumerie with Otto. / Advertisement for Lillotte Perfume Grandmother ruled the household and took care of Trude while her parents worked. Trude dressed for a night out at the opera or concert hall. Trude enjoyed boating, swimming, skiing, and hiking with friends. Trude and her father liked the seaside. Trude with her “Three Musketeers.” One of them became a Nazi Brownshirt and was the inspiration for Hans Jaegar, Greta’s arch enemy in Vienna on Fire. Trude was an assertive young woman. This Nazi document is about the forced sale of the Blau Parfumerie to Hans Pokorny. Gestapo mug shot of Otto and his arrest record for failing to pay a Jewish business tax. The steamship Ilsenstein brought Trude to New York City on April 27, 1939 with a German “J” passport, confirmed passage, and a U.S. sponsor. Trude, age 20, married Fred Gabor in 1940 and had two children, Ellen and Don (author of Vienna on Fire) Trude protesting the war in Vietnam. Newspaper notice in 2001 for a class action suit for Austrian victims of National Socialism. Application to Austria’s General Settlement Fund for Victims of National Socialism in 2003 Trude Gabor spent her adult life supporting liberal causes. She died in 2017, age 97.
