Righteous Among The Nations Babak, Maria No data available
When Austrian housekeeper Maria Turnsek agreed to smuggle a young Jewish boy out of Nazi-occupied Vienna, she had no idea of the price she would pay. Betrayed by a former friend, she was accused of kidnap and could not get back home to her own seven-year-old son, Helmut. It would be nine years before they met again.
Now, almost 60 years after her death, Irma Maria Turnsek, who arrived in Britain in the 1930s and was known as Maria, is finally being recognised for her heroism. She will be posthumously awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations at the Israeli Embassy in London next week
