The Righteous Among Nations

The Righteous Among Nations              

                                                                                                                                                                                Marianne Golz-Goldlust (née Belokosztolszky) was an Austrian-born opera singer and actress. She maintained a successful career in eastern Europe during the early 1920s, later moving to Prague, Czechoslovakia, and becoming a theatre critic. She married Jewish journalist Hans Goldlust in 1929. When Hans was arrested by Nazis in 1939, Golz-Goldlust secured his release, helping him and his other relatives escape to England. She stayed in Prague to help the Resistance, a dangerous task which she accomplished by hiding Jewish refugees, smuggling financial resources and information across borders, recruiting new resistance members, and holding resistance meetings at her home.

After she and several other resistance members were arrested by Nazis in 1942, Golz-Goldlust confessed to her part in the resistance and claimed her associates were innocent, successfully securing their release. Her family's legal attempts to have Golz-Goldlust freed were ultimately unsuccessful. In May 1943, she was sentenced to death by the Nazis, and was executed by guillotine in October of that year.

Golz-Goldlust's personal letters were compiled and published in book-form after the war, and her story became further popularized via articles, radio broadcasts, and a stage play. In 1988, Golz-Goldlust was recognized posthumously as Righteous Among the Nations.