Carnival family

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Maria Fasching (* 22. June 1900 in Upper Frein, today municipality Neuberg ) saved in 1945 at Austrian Lahnsattel with their children Fritz (Friedrich * 1921) and Mitzi Carnival (Maria * 1922) several scouts the Red Army before Arrest and murder by the National Socialists .

On March 23, 1945, the Red Army parachuted several scouts into the Austrian Alps. On landing, Maria Sabeschinsky (* 1923 in Riga), a German-speaking, Russian Jew, broke her leg, so that the group made slow progress. Since the radio messages from the Russian troops had been intercepted early on by German soldiers, the Russians were quickly tracked down and followed.

On April 17th, the group reached the village of Lahnsattel in Lower Austria , exhausted from their escape and the constant threat. Out of desperation, despite the risk of betrayal, they asked for help in a house on the outskirts - the house of the Fasching family. Maria Fasching then hid the Russians in the attic, provided them with food together with their children, dried their clothes and took care of Sabeschinsky’s injured leg. The next day, Maria Fasching learned from a neighbor that the place was being searched by the Schutzstaffel (SS), whereupon the Russian soldiers left the village again. Due to her poor physical condition, Sabeschinsky had to stay behind. The Fasching family continued to hide her despite the knowledge of her Jewish origin and the danger of death for the family associated with her presence in the house.

During the raid in the village, the SS decided not to search the house during carnival, but then set up guards on the street directly in front of the house. Although SS men regularly came to the house of the Fasching family to warm up there, Sabeschinsky was not discovered. After the Germans withdrew and the Red Army marched in on May 7, 1945, she was able to leave her hiding place and return to the Soviet Union.

In 1991, Maria, Mitzi and Fritz Fasching were honored as Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem for the rescue of Sabeschinsky .

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