When I remember my two grandmothers, I remember their kindness, their sense of humor, and of course, their fine, snow white hair. The lady in this picture has many "grandmotherly" similarities to both of them. Her name is Edeltrud (aydul-trood) Posiles (posey-less), a lady of 96 years with an incredible story.
We were fortunate enough to be able to meet her at a home for Jewish senior citizens. Edeltrud is not Jewish, but because of her extraordinary courage and act of selflessness, she was invited by the Jewish community to live in this beautiful facility as their guest.
Edeltrud is a member of the Righteous Among the Nations, a designation given to those who saved Jewish people from the Holocaust, and whose names are engraved by Israel on a Wall of Honor in Jerusalem's Garden of the Righteous. Edeltrud was one of 88 Austrians given this title, and is now the last living Righteous member in all of Austria.
She began her story as she flashed back to1942, when a knock on her door changed her life forever. Edeltrud expected to find Gestapo police on the other side, but instead she opened the door to her future fiancé, Walter, and his two brothers, Hans and Ludwig. They had fled Prague in 1938 after the German annexation of Austria, but returned in 1942 when Hitler's men had taken over that city too.
The three brothers were told they were being deported to a concentration camp, so they faked their own suicide letters to make the authorities think they were dead. They then took a train back to Vienna into the centre of Hitler's chaos, but they were fortunate enough to be taken in by Edeltrud. One of the many challenges she faced in doing this was feeding the 3 extra mouths! She decided to make counterfeit food ration cards so they could get enough food for everyone!
Lucky for the Posiles brothers, Edeltrud was no bystander, even though the punishment for what she did was death, had she been caught. Through a German translator in the group, we learned that Edeltrud did not hesitate to take the three brothers in. She said she just did what was right, and that she would do it all over again if she had to.
Walter survived and he eventually married Edeltrud, and Hans, the oldest brother, did manage to elude the Nazis, but was killed by a Russian bomb explosion in the last days of the war. Fortunately, Walter's other brother, Ludwig, did survive until the end of the war.
Meeting Edeltrud was truly an honor and a privilege. Even through the language barrier, we could see her story in her eyes, as well as her words. She recounted with a devilish grin and smiling eyes the times they outwitted the Nazis and maintained the brothers' "cover," but she had tears in her eyes when we stood and applauded her story and thanked her for sharing it with us. For me, the sadness of her story lies in the fact that she and Walter did eventually divorce, leaving no children to carry on her legacy.
Holding Edeltrud's hand in the picture and sitting beside her reminded me of visiting with my own grandmothers. Her warmth, kindness, courage, and compassion are truly special gifts of her humanity. Her story reminds us that people are inherently good, and that we all have choices in our lives. It's how we make those choices that defines us as the type of human being we want to be.
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