Helmrich Donata

Helmrich, Donata Donata Helmrich, mother of four, was the wife of Major Eberhard Helmrich*. In the summer of 1941, Major Helmrich set up an agricultural labor camp near Drohobycz (in Galicia in eastern Poland) with Jewish inmates as workers. In November 1942, Mrs. Helmrich came from Berlin for a visit. She told her husband that there was a severe shortage of manpower in Germany and had him arrange forged Ukrainian papers for two of the Jewish girls employed on the farm, Susi Bezalel and her younger sister. Mrs. Helmrich took them both along with her on the train to Berlin, ostensibly as Ukrainian housemaids. A few months later another young Jewess showed up in the Helmrich household, Anita Birnbach. This was a very risky act for a mother of four young children, especially considering the fact that foreign workers were subject to strict and regular control by the German police. Fearing that one of the children might inadvertently give her away, Mrs. Helmrich later arranged for the Jewish girls to work as housemaids in the neighborhood. She continued to look after the Jewish girls, keeping them informed of what was happening in Drohobycz from her husband’s letters. When Susi Bezalel learned that her mother was dead, she started calling Mrs. Helmrich “Mami.” On July 7, 1986, Yad Vashem recognized Donata Helmrich as Righteous Among the Nations.