Survival in „geschützter Mischehe“ (protected intermarriages)

„We've been trembling all the time, there were rumors we're next.“ (Otto Wellisch)

Some people, who were "Volljuden" according to the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935, were able to survive the persecution on the spot. Jewish parents of a "Mischling" (half breed) as well as childless Jewish marriage women in an upright intermarriage ("Mischehe") were privileged and were not deported to a large extent. Even Jewish husbands of "Aryan" women enjoyed more protection. They survived because the National Socialists feared that the protests of the non-Jewish relatives would endanger the secrecy of the extermination process. Nevertheless, many of the victims were fleeing to safe foreign countries.

Seven St. Pöltner Jewish women survived in their hometown or in Vienna in a protected mix: Melanie Benedikt, Rudolf Bondy, Anna Mattes, née Gelb, Ernestine Yeschko, Alfred Kirchenberger, Else Maurer and Otto Wellisch.

Survive Hidden

„For two and a half years I was always imprisoned, also the food supply was difficult, but this was not the worst. The fear, one has always lived under fear. I've often woken up with crap, because I dreamed I heard military boots. You did not know how it would end. To myself, I said I had to kill myself the day they were going to win. I could not hide forever.“ (Wera Heilpern)

In 1923 Wenzel and Maria Jindra from Viehofen took over the eight-month-old Wera as a nursing child. She was the illegitimate child of a Jewish representative who had not found support either with the Jewish - married - child father or with her parents. Wera grew up like the other children of the family, except that she also attended the Jewish religious education as well as the Catholic. In 1933, Wera was suddenly taken away by four physical aunts and had only now secretly contact her family.