Wimmer Anna

Niedrist, Hans, his borther Franz, and sisters Isabella, and Maria (Moidl) Prem, Michael and Maria Thaler, Heinz and Maria Hausberger, Anna (Wimmer) This is the story of the rescue of Irma Dann and her two daughters, Marion and Eva, who had fled from Berlin and found refuge with several families in the Tirol region in western Austria. The Dann family lived in Berlin. When in 1938 anti-Jewish legislation prevented Dr. Richard Dann from practicing medicine, he decided that it was time to leave Germany. Having a visa to Cuba, he hoped to be able to get to the United States and from there to arrange the immigration of his family. Dann managed to reach the United States, but by the time he had enough money and visas for his family, it was summer 1941, and Jews no longer could leave Germany. His wife and daughters were trapped in Berlin. Jewish students were no longer allowed to go to non-Jewish schools, and Eva and Marion had transferred to a Jewish school where they learned English in the hope of this helping them should they be able to immigrate. On June 30, 1942, the deportation of German Jews was in full swing, and a total ban on education for Jewish children was introduced. The Jewish schools were closed and all the students had to perform forced labor. A German acquaintance, who was on leave from the eastern front, told Irma about the systematic murder of Jews in the east. This prompted Irma to try to flee from Berlin. When a Jewish friend, Dr. Rudolf Ruhmann, who had escaped to Tyrol, wrote to them that he had found people who would help escapees, Irma decided to leave Berlin with her daughters. It was February 1943, and the deportation of the remaining Jews of Berlin was being planned. Irma Dann and her daughters, 20-year-old Eva (later Schuster) and 17-year-old Marion (later Weiner) set out for the long trip to Tirol. Since Jews were not allowed to go by train, they took local trains, where the danger of police checks was smaller. They had the address of a guesthouse owned by a brother and sister, Hans and Isabella Niedrist, who were known to be friendly to refugees. Unfortunately, the day before their arrival, the Gestapo conducted a search in the guest house. Although they were deeply shaken, the Niedrists took the three women in and hid them in the cellar. Isabella then sent Eva to the guest house owned by her brother and sister, Franz and Maria (Moidl), where she could stay under cover working as a waitress, and Irma and Marion stayed on for a couple of days. This became extremely dangerous when one of the guests in the hotel recognized Irma and went to the police. The two women had to leave what they had believed to be a safe haven. Isabella sent them to Heinz Thaler, the village teacher, who was known for his anti-Nazi views. In her written testimony Irma wrote that she confessed to Thaler that they were Jews on the run. Thaler immediately sent one of his sons to the local shoemaker, who knew all the families in the area. It was decided that Irma would be taken to Anna Wimmer, who was pregnant and needed help with her 3-year-old child—her husband was at the front. Wimmer knew Irma’s real identity, and the two women grew close. Marion was first sent to stay with another woman, but she was badly treated—she had to work hard in the freezing cold without proper clothing, and she suffered verbal abuse from her landlady. She stayed there until sometime around Christmas 1943, when she was taken in by Heinz Thaler and his wife Maria. They told her she could stay until Easter, but they eventually hid her until close to the end of the war. The Thalers put themselves in great danger because they were also hiding their son, who had deserted from the army. When Irma Dann wanted to give Thaler some money for her daughter’s upkeep, Thaler refused, saying that if there was enough food for six children, it would be sufficient for seven. Eva, who was staying at the guesthouse of Franz and Moidl Niedrist, felt relatively safe. She befriended another worker at the guest house—a friendship that lasted for many years after the war. One of her tasks was to transfer hotel guests across the lake in a rowboat. In her testimony she said that she once had to take a vacationing soldier in the boat. The soldier boasted that he could smell Jews from afar. Eva drew close to him and asked him boldly: “Can you really?” But a week before Christmas 1943, she had to leave. In her testimony she described how one evening the door burst open with a gust of wind. Her hosts, who were deeply religious and probably in great fear, told her that they saw this as a sign from Jesus, and that she had better leave. Not knowing where her mother and sister were, she decided to go to the school teacher who had helped the two to find refuge. Braving the winter cold, she began to climb to his village. On the way she came upon a small house where Michael and Maria Prem and their three children were having dinner. The peasant asked Eva if she was the relative who had come for the funeral of one of the villagers, and offered to let her stay the night. The following day the family’s sons took her to the village school. They found the teacher ringing the school bell. It was Thaler, who immediately recognized Eva from the photos her mother had. He told Eva where her mother was staying but that there was no one who could take her there. When she told him where she had stayed the previous night, Thaler told her to return to the peasant’s home and tell him that her mother and sister were staying in the neighboring village. After arriving back at the Prem’s house, Eva decided to confide in Michael. She told him she was not a relative arriving for a funeral but that she was a Jew with no place to turn to. “Hmm,” said Prem, “I heard about Jews.” He then added that she could stay—he had always wished for a daughter. Eva responded that no one was to know that she was staying with them, and that she had no ration cards. “A good Christian does not only go to church on Sundays to pray; a good Christian has to care for others,” responded Prem. He said he would talk to his wife and that there would be no problems. Hiding a person was risky, especially since in the Tirol the custom was to leave the doors open. When strangers approached, Eva would have to rush to the pantry and hide there. In her testimony Eva Schuster described life with the Prem family. It was very different from the city life Eva had been used to. Her rescuers lived very simply, eating meat only twice a year—on Christmas and Easter. There was no soap, and they would not wash very often. In fact they were stunned by the fact that Eva would wash daily and brush her teeth. The family had only one book: a Bible. When Prem realized that Eva was bored, he remembered that his aunt in the nearby town owned a book. He traveled to her and brought the book, a history of Greece, back. He also tried to get her newspapers as often as possible. Eva stayed inside most of the time, going outside the house only rarely. She remembered one time when a neighbor commented on the washing that was hanging outside to dry. There was Eva’s underwear, which differed greatly from what the local peasants wore. Maria Prem quickly explained that it belonged to a visiting relative from the city. In her testimony Eva also described a time when the Prem farm was searched. She hid in a pile of hay and luckily escaped when the policemen stuck pitchforks into the pile. During the time she stayed with the Prems, Eva was sometimes able to see her sister, who was staying with Thaler. Her mother also came to visit her on some occasions. As the war was drawing to an end, the danger increased. Residents of Vienna, which was under heavy bombardment, were evacuated to the countryside, and the Tirol families had to host them in their homes. The Prem family too had to take in a family and therefore asked Eva to leave. At first she stayed with a peasant who did not know she was Jewish, and then she joined her sister at Thaler’s home. Notwithstanding the fact that Thaler had been billeted and three SS officers were staying in his home, he continued to hide Marion and Eva. Marion said in her testimony that even at this late stage of the war, as Germany was losing on all fronts, one of the officers told her he was from the Rhineland, that his home had been destroyed by a bomb, but that he was happy about it because this meant that no Jew would be able to move into what had been his home. As the American forces were approaching, members of the Austrian resistance came to Thaler’s home and asked Eva to come with them. They wanted to establish contact with the American soldiers but could not speak English. Encountering the American soldiers, Eva told them she was Jewish. At first they did not believe her. They had liberated a concentration camp and did not believe that any Jews had survived. Eventually she was able to convince them, and she found several Jewish soldiers to whom she gave her father’s address in the United States, which she had kept sewn into the lining of her coat. Dr. Dann, who had not heard from his family for several years, received the news that his wife and two daughters had survived. Soon after Irma, Eva, and Marion immigrated to the United States, where they joined the family father. When Eva gave birth to a son, she called him Michael, in honor of her rescuer. On March 4, 2014, Yad Vashem recognized Franz Niedrist, his sister Maria, and Heinz and Maria Thaler as Righteous Among the Nations. On April 1, 2014, Yad Vashem recognized Hans Niedrist, his sister Isabella, Michael and Maria Prem, and Anna (Wimmer) Hausberger as Righteous Among the Nations.