Linsinger Balthasar

Linsinger, Balthasar Valerie Feix, a Jewish woman from Vienna, married a non-Jewish Austrian painter, Eduard Baeumer, in 1923. The couple lived in Salzburg and had three children: Angelica, Michael and Bettina. When Austria was united with Nazi Germany in 1938 and the persecution of the Jews began, Valerie was able to register as a half Jew, and consequently her children were considered quarter Jews and therfore were not subjected to discrimination. They were able to maintain this status until the beginning of 1944, when someone denounced the family. Valerie's racial status was changed to Jewish, and her children automatically became half Jewish (Mischling of the first degree). 12-year-old Angelica was immediately thrown out of school. In the testimony she sent to Yad Vashem Angelica wrote: "One day, in the middle of a lesson, the classroom door opened and two Gestapo men came in, noisily stamping with their boots. They approached the teacher, yelled 'Heil Hitler', all the students rose to their feet, and then one of them shouted: 'the bastard Baeumer is to come with us'. I immediately realized what it was all about, gathered my things and went to the door. They grabbed me by my shoulders and lead me along the corridors and stairways to the school entrance. It was as if the entire school had been waiting, the students rushed out of the classrooms and began running after me, spitting at me and screaming: 'dirty Jewish bastard, we hope they will exterminate you'. Until this very day I remember how I felt in these moments. I was facing two options: collapse or straighten up and walk past the rows of hatred with my head held high. That moment I became a Jew. Even though until that moment I was never really aware what part of me was Jewish, that morning I became a Jew, a thousand years old". Valerie and her children were now branded as Jews. Pressure was put on Eduard to divorce his wife, but he refused. Unable to work and with their food rations cut, the familyfaced great difficulties. Soon they were told by a friend who did not break ties with the family that Valerie and her children were in danger of being deported. It was then that Eduard Bauemer remembered the offer made by a country priest from a small village near Salzburg. He had met the priest in 1942 when he agreed to reconstruct a wall painting of the priest's church for free. A friendship developed, and Baeumer confided in the priest and told him about his fear for his family, should they be declared as Jews. The grateful priest said: 'if you are ever in danger, come to my home'. Two years later, the desperate family decided to take that offer. They packed a few things, and took the train to the closest town. From there they walked the remaining 16 km to Grossarl, the priest's village. father Balthasar Linsinger welcomed the family into his home, and they stayed there until the US army arrived in May 1945. They later found out that the day after their hasty escape the Gestapo arrived at their apartment to take them away. Many years later, when Father Linsinger had already retired and was living in an old age home, the youngest sister, Bettina, came to visit him. When she expressed her gratitude to the priest for having saved her life, he responded that it was he who owed them a debt of thanks for having enabled him to act according to his conscience. Angelica Baeumer ended the account she wrote to Yad Vashem with the words: "In those days I was a young girl; today I am a grandmother. But I have not forgotten anything that happened in those days. This experience penetrated too deeply into my soul and my being..." On 14 September 2010 Yad Vashem recognized Balthasar Linsinger as Righteous Among the Nations.