Buchegger, Friederike
Edeltrud Becher (later Posiles*) was a young Viennese woman who, in 1936, met and fell in love with Walter Posiles, a Czech citizen. The two wanted to marry in 1938, but after the Nazi invasion of Austria in that year, this became impossible because Posiles was considered Jewish under the Nuremberg laws, and marriages between Aryans and Jews were forbidden. Posiles fled Austria, and lived in Prague. He stayed in touch with Becher, and the two even managed to visit each other on a number of occasions. In the autumn of 1939 the Gestapo received an anonymous tip, informing them that Becher was having a romantic relationship with a Jew. A policeman was dispatched to the home of Becher’s family to investigate the matter, but luckily, Becher was not there at the time. Realizing that she was wanted by the police, Becher escaped over the border to her sister who lived in Hungary, where she lived for one and a half years. Friederike Buchegger was a friend of Walter Posiles. When she heard about the plight of Posiles’ beloved Edeltrud, she decided to use her connections to help her. Buchegger contacted a woman friend, who had another friend that worked in the office of the Viennese Gestapo, where the incriminating charge against Becher was on file. Upon Buchegger’s request, this friend destroyed Becher’s file, along with the postcard from the anonymous informant. Once she was sure that the file had been destroyed, Bechegger passed the news on to Becher, who was then able to return to Vienna, apparently in 1941. In 1942, when the Jews of the Protectorate were being rounded up and transported to concentration camps, Posiles escaped to Vienna, along with his two brothers Hans and Ludwig. The brothers sought refuge with Becher, who hid them in an attic apartment belonging to Friedrich Kunz, the fiancé of her sister Charlotte Becher*. Kunz was in the army, but when he came home for vacations, the sisters were forced to smuggle the brothers to alternatehiding places. Again, Buchegger helped out, convincing the concierge of her housing block to hide Walter’s brother Ludwig for short periods. Buchegger also provided continuous support for the day-to-day upkeep of the brothers, collecting food-ration cards and supplying Becher with food. Because hiding Jews was considered a serious crime, Buchegger was putting herself into considerable danger. However, she received no financial compensation for her activities. The three Posiles brothers would have all survived, but unfortunately, Hans was killed in a bombardment shortly before the end of the war. After the war, Walter Posiles and Edeltrud Becher married, but they divorced in 1962. Both of them continued to live in Austria, as did Walter’s brother, Ludwig Posiles.
On October 26, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Friederike Buchegger as Righteous Among the Nations.
File 1425