Potesil Maria

Potesil, Maria Maria Potesil, born in Vienna in 1894, was a widow who had lost her husband during the First World War. In 1927, she was living in Vienna with her two children when the municipal social services authorities gave her a two-and-a-half year old boy to care for as a foster child. The city maintained official guardianship of the boy, who was named Kurt Martinetz. As soon as he reached school age, it became clear to Potesil that Kurt’s father was a Jew. Still, she faithfully looked after Martinetz, despite the fact that he was sickly and in need of special care. In 1938, when the Nazis annexed Austria, the Nuremburg racial laws came into effect. Martinetz, then 14 years old, was suspended from school. At the same time, the city of Vienna stopped giving Potesil financial assistance for the boy’s support. Potesil struggled to achieve official guardianship of Martinetz, a struggle that she continued even as the authorities planned to deport him together with the rest of the Jewish children of the city. Her devotion to Martinetz aroused the ire of both the Gestapo and Potesil’s own neighbors, who harassed and insulted her, and treated her as an outcast. In 1939, Potesil received guardianship for Martinetz. Because of her relationship with the Jewish child, Potesil was forced to give up her apartment and move with Martinetz to a neighborhood where Jews were allowed to live. She suffered from all the restrictions placed on the Jews, and was forced to put a Star of David on the door of her apartment and to buy food only in stores that sold to Jews. In the building in which she now lived were many apartments given to people who were close to the Nazi authorities. These new neighbors harassed Potesil. Some, including the building concierge, forced Potesil to bring them “gifts.” Another neighbor used her connections with the SS to pressure Potesil, and regularly extorted money and clothing from her. When the aerial bombardments of the city began, Potesil wasforbidden to enter the bomb shelter together with her Jewish son. Potesil did everything she could to have Martinetz recognized not as a full Jew, but as a person of “mixed race of the first degree,” a status that would protect him from deportation. She even gave up her Czech citizenship and became a German citizen, so that she could apply directly to Adolph Hitler with this request. But all her requests were denied. In September 1944 Martinetz was arrested and placed on the list of deportees to Theresienstadt. Potesil turned to every possible office, asking that the boy be returned to her, and finally her request was granted. When Martinetz returned, Potesil immediately hid him with friends. Potesil endangered herself by hiding a Jewish boy, a crime that could have led to deportation to a concentration camp, and eventually to death. Because of her desire to protect the boy, she endured a great deal of personal suffering and humiliation. Her financial condition was precarious because of the many expenses involved in taking care of Martinetz. After the war, Martinetz continued to live in Vienna where he opened a business. On June 19, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Potesil as Righteous Among the Nations.