Persecuted like all other members of her family, by Nazi officials during World War II, she was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia in October 1942, and was murdered there, like her English PhD holder sister Helene.

Her sister Helene Richter, four years older than Elise, became known as an anglicist and theatre scholar, writing about and translating English literature and drama.

It was not until 1896 that girls were admitted to the Matura examination (general university entrance qualification), which Elise Richter passed the following year, at the age of 32.

In their home in the "cottage quarter" of Währing, Elise and Helene Richter hosted a weekly salon for intellectuals and artists, starting in 1906.

Among their regular guests were the women's rights activists Marianne Hainisch and Rosa Mayreder, music critic Max Kalbeck, and Burgtheater director Hugo Thimig.

[9][10][11] The Elise Richter Program of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), which provides financial support for female postdoc researchers aiming for a professorship, is named in her honour.