• Erna C. von Engel-Baiersdorf
• Erna von Engel-Baiersdorf
• Erna von Engel-Janosi
• Erna Engel-Baiersdorf
• Erna Engel-Janosi

• Maiden Name: Erna von Baiersdorf von Erdos

Erna Clara von Baiersdorf von Erdős was born in Vienna, then capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on September 24, 1889. Her father was Carl Adolf von Baiersdorf von Erdős, a government official, and her mother was Clara von Baiersdorf (née Redlich). Her family were Jewish, and had been enrolled in the Hungarian nobility She studied painting under the Austrian artist Ludwig Ferdinand Graf, and sculpture with the Hungarian sculptors Josef Heuto, Béla Sándor, and Lajos Mátray. In 1909, Erna married Richard Baier Erdosi; In 1919, she married again, to Robert Engel de Jánosi, resulting in her name changing to its current form, Erna von Engel-Baiersdorf.
In the 1920s, Erna became interested in anthropological reconstruction, recreating the possible features of long-deceased individuals based on the proportions of their skeletons. In 1924 she worked with Austrian anthropologist Egon von Eickstedt at the Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien on the first reconstruction of the face of the Neanderthal Man, now recognized as a cousin hominid species to Homo Sapiens. Erna seems to have adopted Eickstedt’s theories of racial types, which attempted to classify humans into distinct “races” based on physical characteristics such as skull shape. Eickstedt would go on to become one of the most influential racial theorists in Nazi Germany.
Following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, Erna was dismissed from her position at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in accordance with the Nazis’ antisemitic legislation. She then moved to Pécs, Hungary, where she became curator of the city’s Natural History Museum. In 1939, Erna was invited to London by the Royal College of Surgeons, who commissioned her to create a series of sculptures depicting children at different periods of their development. In the same year, Erna’s sister Margit and her husband Otto Rief left Vienna and eventually resettled in Vancouver; Erna refused their invitation to come with them and returned to her position in Hungary. As the Hungarian government passed an increasing number of antisemitic laws, Erna and Róbert converted to Catholicism. In 1944, after the Hungarian dictator Horthy sought to negotiate a separate peace with the Allies, Nazi Germany invaded Hungary. Erna was arrested by the new collaborationist Hungarian authorities and turned over to the Nazis, who transported her to the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the camp, Erna was declared fit to work by Josef Mengele, saving her from the gas chambers. She managed to obtain “perks” (such as exemption from head-shaving and extra rations) by drawing sketches of SS officers. In 1945, Erna was transferred to the slave labour camp at Buchenwald, and was eventually liberated by American soldiers.
Erna returned briefly to Pécs after the war, and then, through her sister’s intervention, accepted a position at the Museum of Vancouver, moving there in 1948. In Vancouver, Erna undertook a number of projects. She spearheaded the reanalysis of a mummy held by the museum, arguing that the museum had mistaken the sex and age of the body. She also contracted with the Vancouver Police Department to create reconstructions of the faces of unidentified skeletons in the hopes of allowing family or friends to recognize them.
Despite her own suffering at the hands of a genocidally racist regime, Erna never fully abandoned the racial theories that she acquired in the 1920s. She spent six months living with the Chilcotin First Nation, where she performed skull-measuring and took photographs and handprints from members in accordance with the practices of racial pseudoscience.
Erna died on June 11, 1967. She had no children of her own, but was survived by stepgrandchildren through Róbert in Paris and New York. Her estate donated some of her effects, including belongings from various nations, ancestral remains, and these archival materials, to the Laboratory of Archaeology. Other of her materials are in the archives of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, the Museum of Vancouver, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kamloops (physically housed in the Archdiocese of Vancouver archives).
Erna’s remains are interred in the Ocean View Burial Park, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

A note on naming: The majority of documents Erna herself produced were signed Erna von Engel-Baiersdorf. However, she was referred to by other names in other documents. At times (including on her Auschwitz card) she is referred to by her husband’s surname as Erna von Engel-Janosi; at other times (including on her gravestone) the von is dropped, making her Erna Engel-Baiersdorf.

Note: I wish to thank Wendy Nichols at the Museum of Vancouver, Jennifer Sargent at the Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, Ada Alster of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, and Dr. Paul Lambers of the Universiteetsmuseum Utrecht for their extremely generous gifts of time and information.

External Sources:
Anghy, A. (n.d.). “White Background: On the “scientific” art of Erna Engel-Baiersdorf”
Lambers, Paul H., Berner, Margit, Kremmler, Katrin (2022) “From anatomy to palaeo-raciology: Two Neanderthal reconstructions at the NHMW 1924/25” Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, Serie A.
Mcmullan, Margaret (2024) “Reconstructing Erna” The Bulwark https://www.thebulwark.com/p/reconstructing-erna
Museum of Vancouver, “Bust of Queen Nefertiti” https://www.openmovportal.ca/argus/final/Portal/Main.aspx?component=AAFG&record=04abd76c-dfbd-4689-b459-6c96520e4b7d
Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, “Von Baiersdorf, Reif Family Fonds” https://collections.vhec.org/Detail/collections/96