Golz Maria (Belokosztolsky)

Golz-Goldlust, Marianne Marianne Golz-Goldlust was born in 1895 in Vienna as Maria Agnes Belokosztolszky the daughter of a Czechoslovakian mother and a Polish father who worked as an orchestra conductor. Using the stage name Marianne Tolska, she became an actress and opera singer, and between 1922 and 1924 was a member of the Salzburg City Theatre. In 1924 she moved to Berlin, and in 1929, she married Hans Goldlust, a Jewish journalist and literary editor who lived in Berlin. With the rise of the Nazis to power, the couple changed their name to Golz, and in 1934 moved from Berlin to Prague, where Golz-Goldlust became a theater critic. After the Nazi invasion of Prague in 1939, Golz-Goldlust’s husband was arrested by the Nazis. Golz-Goldlust met with the Gestapo and managed to get a temporary release for her husband, who then immediately fled to England. Golz-Goldlust remained behind in order to help her mother-in-law and sister-in law who were still living in the city. She held social gatherings in her home that attracted members of the anti-Nazi resistance, many of them Jews and half-Jews. In 1940 she met Ottokar Zapotecky, who was at the head of a network that helped Jews in Prague escape over the border. Golz-Goldlust made Zapotecky’s acquaintance by way of a common friend, Josef Goldschmidt, who, because he himself was on a list for deportation, later used this network to escape to Vienna. In October 1942, one of Golz-Goldlust’s friends turned to her for help. Viktor Kühnel, a half-Jew according to the Nuremberg racial laws, decided to escape from Prague to Vienna. Golz-Goldlust helped Kühnel make contact with Zapotecky, who agreed to help him to cross the border to Austria. She also made contact with her friend Goldschmidt in Vienna, who met Kühnel and helped him during his first days in Vienna. In addition, Golz-Goldlust took a sum of 20,000 krones from Kühnel, and transferred the money in small amounts to Vienna through her sister, Rosi, who lived inthe city. In November 1942, the Nazis discovered Zapotecky’s smuggling ring, and all those who were involved in its activities were arrested. Eighteen people were put on trial in Prague, and on May 18, 1943, ten of them were sentenced to death, including Marianne Golz-Goldlust, Zapotecky and Goldschmidt. Kühnel was sentenced to one year in prison. The group was imprisoned in the Pancrač prison in Prague. Even behind bars, Golz-Goldlust stood out because of the power of her personality. She kept up a widespread correspondence, written on scraps of paper smuggled in and out with the food. Many of these letters were exchanged between her and a member of the Czech underground, with whom Golz-Goldlust fell in love after they met in jail. Golz-Goldlust was executed in jail on October 8, 1943, but the letters she wrote testified to the strength of her spirit and the optimism she maintained until her very last moments. After the war, her letters from jail were published in 1946 in Prague in a book titled Zaluji (I accuse), and later in German, under the title, The Great Day (Der Große Tag), and her life story became the basis for articles, radio broadcasts and even a stage play. On June 9, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Marianne Golz-Goldlust as Righteous Among the Nations.