Franziska Tausig

Franziska Tausig (* 1895; † 1989) was an Austrian author.

Tausig gave birth to her son, Otto Tausig in 1922 in Vienna. He later became an actor and director.

In 1938, the persecution of Jews was heightening through the Nazi in Austria. Tausig sent Otto, then 16, to England through an advertisement in The Times which advertised for workers, thus saving him from persecution.

Later in 1938, Tausig incidentally acquired two tickets for the "Usaramo", a ship that was supposed to be scrapped in Japan, which transported Jews to Shanghai on the way. Tausig emigrated to Shanghai with her husband, who died there of tuberculosis shortly thereafter. Ten years later, in 1948, Tausig was reunited with her son in Vienna.

Franziska Tausig’s parents were deported to Theresienstadt and later were gassed in Treblinka.

In 1987, Tausig published her memoirs with the title "Shanghai Passage: Flucht und Exil einer Wienerin" (escape and exile of a Viennese). In this book she describes her desperate bid for survival in her escape from Austria.