ByRosa Doherty, Rosa Doherty
A housekeeper who abandoned her own son to save a Jewish child from the Nazis is to be named as Righteous Among the Nations.
Maria Turnsek was working as housekeeper for a prominent Jewish family in Vienna. Her employers, Otto and Kathe Leichter, begged her to flee the country with their six-year-old son Franz - as a non-Jew she was able to travel without arousing suspicion.
She agreed, although it meant leaving her own son, Helmut, behind. Having reached the safety of Paris, Franz was eventually reunited with his family, but Maria was unable to return to Austria after the Nazis were alerted to what she had done.
She was forced to live out the war in England and was only reunited with Helmut in 1947.
Since her death in 1956, Helmut and Franz have campaigned to get Maria recognised as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel.
Following an article tracing the story in the JC earlier this year, Yad Vashem has said it will honour her.
Helmut died last year, but in a letter to Franz before Pesach Yad Vashem confirmed "that the commission chairman approved the commission's decision to honour Irma Maria Turnsek as Righteous Among the Nations."
Helmut's widow Doreen Turnsek, who lives in north London, said Maria had been incredibly brave.
"What she did was make the most unthinkable sacrifice to be that brave and kind. It isn't something most people can do and the added pain of being separated from your own child is something else. She was a remarkable woman.
Mrs Turnsek said she believed the JC story had helped secure the honour. "If it was not for that article, who knows - it might not have happened."