Mueller Anna ; Son: Konstantin

Müller, Konstantin Müller, Anna Konstantin Müller worked as a postal clerk in Vienna during the 1930s. He lived in a large house together with his mother, Anna Müller, who managed a flower shop. Müller disapproved of Nazi policies, and ever since the Germans annexed Austria in 1938 he had done what he could to help individual Jews, providing advice, money and supplies, and when possible, taking advantage of his personal connections. Among the Jews Müller helped was Greti Stern who, thanks to Müller, managed to emigrate from Vienna to Israel in 1939. Müller also financially supported Stern’s mother, sister and sister’s husband, and in 1942 also helped them in an escape attempt across the border to Hungary. (The attempt was unsuccessful and they were captured and sent to concentration camps). Anna Müller used her large home in Vienna to provide shelter for a number of Jews who had no other place to live, as Jewish homes and apartments were continually confiscated by the Nazis. In the middle of 1941, for example, ten people were living in her house, most of them Jews. One of the guests was a woman who escaped to Austria from Hungary together with her parents and her little sister. Konstantin Müller used his connections to find this woman food ration cards and a safe place to live and, together with his mother, provided financial support for the woman’s parents and sister, until they were deported. One of Müller’s acquaintances was Julia Lissiansky, a member of the Schwarzstein family. In 1941 Lissiansky received deportation orders to the east, but she managed to get the orders deferred. When Lissiansky’s mother – hospitalized in the Jewish hospital at the time – was deported, Müller and his mother helped Lissiansky go underground. They brought her to their home, and later found her another apartment in Vienna, where she remained in hiding for three years. Müller used his connections to get Lissiansky food-ration cards as well as forged identity papers. Althoughpeople they knew were aware that they were hiding a Jew and threatened to turn them in to the authorities, Müller and his mother were not dissuaded. Neither Müller nor his mother were in good health. Anna was in a wheelchair and was unable to leave the house. Müller himself was drafted in January 1942, but was released from regular army service because of his poor heath. He was hospitalized until 1944, and then was declared unfit for military service. During that entire period, the responsibility for taking care of the Jews in hiding fell on the shoulders of Anna Müller. In October 1944, Lissiansky was arrested. Even after she was imprisoned, Müller used his connections to get her food, and to make sure she would remain under arrest in the Vienna area rather than being sent to the camps. He extended similar help to another couple – Lene and Heinrich – who were with Lissiansky in the prison. Ultimately, Heinrich was sent to Mauthausen, where he survived until the end of the war. Lissiansky and Lene, who were being held in a camp east of Vienna, managed to escape. When they came back to Vienna on April 1, 1945, they sought refuge at the home of Müller and his mother. They remained hidden there until the Russian liberation on the 8th of April. Müller and his mother endangered themselves many times, both because they hid Jews, and because of their activities for the benefit of Jews, ranging from taking advantage of connections with the authorities, to the acquisition of forged documents, to the planning and execution of cross-border escapes. Their actions were even more notable given the poor health from which they both suffered. Konstantin and Anna Müller received no compensation for their activities, and in fact, spent a tremendous amount of their own money to help save Jews. In 1953, Müller and Lissiansky were married. On June 30, 1974, Yad Vashem recognized Konstantin Müller and his mother Anna Müller as Righteous Among the Nations.