Subhas and Emilie Schenkl (1934-1943)

When Bose returned to Vienna in June 1934, he had secured a contract from the British Publisher Lawrence Wishart to write a book on Indian politics with a deadline later in the year , and he looked for a secretary, a trustworthy person  who could help him with the preparation of the book. Through an Indian Doctor in Vienna, Dr. Mathur, Bose was introduced to Emilie Schenkl , a young Vienese woman. She was born on Dec 26, 1910, to an Austrian Catholic family. Her paternal grandfather was a shoemaker, her father a veterinarian. Her father was not eager for her to have a formal education , but late in the First World War , he permitted her to attend a primary school and then begin Secondary School. To learn Grammer she was sent to a Nunnary for four years to continue her education. She thought briefly to become a nun, but dropped the idea. She attended two more schools for a year each completed her education when she was about twenty.By then it was a period of great depression  and she could not get a job.When this opportunity to become the secretary of Bose came to her and she accepted. She knew English well and could take shorthand.She also had the necessary typing skill . Miss Schenkl, a short, attractive and a lively person, was one whom Bose could trust.

He was concerned with this because he was under constant surveillance by the British Embassy, not only in Vienna , but where he went in Europe. Emilie Schenkl helped him in taking the dictation and typing the materials for about three months in making successfully the book The Indian Struggle, 1920-1934.      
In the Preface dated 29 November 1934, to his book " The Indian Struggle" she was the only person he mentioned by name. "In conclusion", he wrote,"I have to express my thanks to Fraulein E.Schenkl who assisted me in writing this book and  to all those friends who have been of to me in many ways." In his first letter from Rome on 30 November 1934, Bose wrote ,"I am always a bad correspondent, but not a bad man I hope ". But Bose had written, during 1934 to 1942, 162 letters whether he was in home, in prison, or hospital or interned.
Emilie Schenkl told privately to some of her reliable person that in Badgestein in December 1937, she and Subhss Bose were secretly married by Hindu rites. In his book, "An Indian Pilgrim" Bose places the development of love at the center of human life. He says in a note , " As I have gradually turned from a purely spiritual life to social service , my views on sex have undergone transformations." While in Europe he experienced 'sexual instincts' not as an enemy as a normal aspect of life that did not have to be completely suppressed. He advocated free choice in marriage , rather than arranged marriage.
" Marriage between Germans and foreigners was not at all encouraged in the Nazi regime." Other biographers have written that Bose and Miss Schenkl were married in 1942, while Krishna Bose , implying 1941 keeping the date ambiguous.
A.C.N.Nambiar was with the couple in Badgestein , briefly, in 1937, and with them in Berlin during the war as second-in-command to Bose. He wrote, in answer to question about the marriage , he wrote in 1978 that Bose lived in an extraordinary circumstances so as to ' marriage having been a very informal one with publicity well avoided.'
The relation Bose and Schenkl possessed was known and they lived together in Berlin from 1941 to 1943, and got a female child, Anita,  in 29 Nov 1942 , moreover , Emilie Schenkl's statement of being married in Dec 1937 left no doubt of their marriage. A nephew of Bose, Dr.Sisir Bose, said quite acutely that it made Subhas Bose a complete human being.
While he lived in Vienna, Bose never ate beef, or smoked, or drank. He devoted some of his time in meditation , seeking privacy for this.