Irma Turnschek, Righteous Among the Nations

Helmut Turnsek was a patient at the North London Hospice who had a story to tell. He felt he couldn’t rest until his story had been heard and the heroes of it recognised. Luckily, he had a dedicated social worker at the hospice, Anne Mossack, who not only listened but acted to ensure the deserved recognition and to reunite Helmut with the other surviving hero of his story. During his childhood Helmut knew and played with a boy his age, Franz. Franz was the son of his mother’s employers in Vienna, the Leichter family, for whom his mother Irma worked as a cook and maid. The hard-working woman had to give Helmut, born 1930, to a foster family but would still bring her son to visit and play. When the boys were eight years old, however, their lives were changed forever. Following the Anschluss of March 1938, the Leichter family’s situation changed dramatically. Since men were especially targeted Otto Leichter escaped. He first attempted to cross the border into Yugoslavia but, when this failed, he managed to illegally get into Switzerland. His wife, Käthe, who was active in the Socialist Party, was in danger both as a Jew and a socialist and began to make arrangements to leave with her two sons, Heinz (Henry), born 1924, and Franz, born 1930. She applied for passports for them all. At the same time, probably not trusting the authorities, she planned to leave illegally and to take her older son, Heinz, with her. She asked their former cook, Irma, who had a passport where her son Helmut was registered, to take Franz on Helmut’s travel document. Before they could leave, on 30 April 1938, Käthe Leichter was arrested. She had told of her plans to an acquaintance who was an informer and he denounced her to the Gestapo. Her two sons were taken by two families of friends. In her interrogation, Käthe denied that she wanted to leave illegally but it was clear that she and the boys were in danger. The boys’ father sent a messenger who was to take Heinz to his father but the family who took care of him, innocently believing that a solution could still be found without breaking the law, refused to hand him over. Irma Turnschek, however, decided to go ahead with the plan she had made with Käthe before her arrest and to take Franz out of the country and then return for her son. On 5 August 1938 they left Vienna and travelled through Germany to Belgium, where family friends were waiting for them to take Franz to his father. Following Irma’s departure, notice was received that the passports for the two boys had been issued and that they were permitted to visit their mother in prison before their departure. The family friends who were taking care of Heinz feared that it would be highly suspicious if only one boy came to visit and therefore informed the authorities that Irma Turnschek had kidnapped the other boy. On 11 August 1938 Heinz visited his mother accompanied by the lady who took care of him. In 1971 he recalled that he told his mother of Franz having been kidnapped by Irma so that she would know that her youngest son was safely out of the country. A day later Heinz left Austria legally with his new passport and joined his father in Switzerland. Käthe Leichter was deported to Ravensbrück camp, where she perished in 1942. Her husband and sons eventually emigrated to the United States. Since she had been accused of having kidnapped Franz Leichter and smuggled him across the border, Irma Turnschek could not return to Vienna and fetch her son. She remained in England for the duration of the war, separated from her son, who had to stay with foster parents, until they were reunited in 1947. They settled in the United Kingdom and changed their last name to Turnsek. The two families lost touch. Anne Mossack heard Helmut’s story and was very moved by it. She contacted her cousin, AJR Chief Executive Michael Newman, who suggested that she contact Yad Vashem, introducing her to Irena Steinfeld of the Department of the Righteous Among the Nations. In September 2013 Anne Mossack contacted Yad Vashem and told the story she had heard from Helmut Turnsek, who by then was critically ill. When the Department of the Righteous Among the Nations traced Franz Leichter in New York, he immediately flew to London to meet Helmut. Shortly afterwards Helmut passed away, having finally been reunited with his childhood friend and hoping that his mother’s heroism would be recognised. On 20 January 2015 Yad Vashem recognised Irma Turnsek as Righteous Among the Nations and on 19 November last year Franz took part in a moving ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in London when Heinz Turnsek’s family received a special certificate from Yad Vashem presented by Chargé d’Affaires Eitan Na’eh.