Pauline Smejkal

Pauline Smejkal (* 1917) is an Austrian Righteous Among the Nations .

Life

Pauline Smejkal from Vienna lived at Kochgasse 24/8 and, after the Anschluss , fled to the Netherlands with her Jewish friend in 1938.

They lived in Haarlem and wanted to get married. However, this was no longer possible after the occupation of the Netherlands by the Germans. Her fiancé was deported to a concentration camp, where he perished. Pauline was left with a small baby. In 1942 Pauline took three Jewish children into her apartment. Esther Friedmann was 6 years old, her sister Fanny 4 years old. The third child was a sick boy.

Esther and Fanny's parents had fled Berlin to Amsterdam in 1933. When they were in danger, they gave up their children to save their lives. Pauline looked after the three Jewish children as if she were her own child. Fanny stayed with her for over a year. She was later taken to the Wienen family (Nachtegaalstrasse 56, Tegelen), where she survived. After the war she married a man named Haselbeck.

Pauline kept Esther hidden in her apartment until the winter of 1944/45. When the danger threatened that the Germans would take the child away from her, she took it to an acquaintance, where it survived the war. Esther married a man named Rabinowitz after the war. Smejkal returned to Vienna with her daughter after the war.

Web links

• The righteous of Austria