Knapp Ludwig & Maria

Knapp, Ludwig Knapp, Maria Ludwig Knapp, an engineer by profession, was the manager of lumber mill and a farm located in Weitre, Lower Austria. Before the war, he had lived in Prague, where he had a number of Jewish friends. Because most of Knapp’s workers had been drafted into the army, in July 1944 the Gmünd regional employment office supplied him with forced Jewish laborers from Hungary. Although they were assigned to hard manual labor, the Jews were allocated only minimal food rations. Knapp saw the way the Hungarian Jews were being treated, took pity on them, and did what he could to help them. He agreed to take a group of 24 Jews, of whom 11 – old people or children – were completely unfit for physical work. Knapp provided his Jewish workers with food and clothing over and above the accepted allotments, and made sure they had proper housing with heat, and even took workers to his personal doctor for treatment when they became ill. He provided shortened workdays to some of his laborers, according to their age and state of health. He allowed them to rest on Yom Kippur and gave them gifts at Christmas. The elderly and young, even those who were not able to work, enjoyed the same conditions. Knapp’s behavior served as an example to the residents of Weitre, who also used Hungarian Jewish labor, and they treated their Jews in a humane fashion. On April 17, 1945, Knapp was ordered to return his workers to the Gmünd employment office so that they could be transferred to Theresienstadt. With the agreement of his wife Maria, Knapp encouraged them to escape from the village and hide, and provided each of them with a month’s worth of food. He took a short trip with his family, allowing the workers to escape while he was gone, and upon his return, he directed the forces that came to search for them in the wrong direction. Some of the Jewish workers hid in the Knapp house itself, where they received food, as well as milk for the children. Knapp, along with hiswife Maria and his family, endangered themselves by helping Jews, a crime that could have led to deportation to a concentration camp, and eventually to death. The Knapp family did not receive any payment for their deeds, and spent a great deal of their own money to provide food and clothing for the needy Jews, including those Jews who were not able to work for them. When Nazi Germany surrendered on May 9, 1945, the workers came out of their hiding places. The Knapp family continued to help them, providing for their necessities, and even giving them money so they could travel home. On April 28, 1968, Yad Vashem recognized Ludwig and Maria Knapp as Righteous Among the Nations.