Dorothea Neff (21 February 1903 – 27 July 1986) was a

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

stage actress during the 1930s. Neff helped hide her Jewish friend Lilli Wolff, after she received resettlement orders from the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

to leave Vienna. To confuse the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

, Neff wrote a suicide note and signed it 'Lilli' and left it in her apartment. Neff allowed Lilli to live with her for a short time and later Lilli moved in with Mati Driessen and Meta Schmidt. Driessen and Schmidt were honored in

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...

in Israel as

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...

. She later moved from the stage to the cinema, acting up until her death in 1986. In 1979, Dorothea Neff was awarded to the list of

in recognition of the risk to her own life, in hiding a Jew during the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. Since 1967 to her death, Neff was blind, but still worked as an actress.

Selected filmography

* '' The Singing House'' (1948) * ''

Adventure in Vienna ''Adventure in Vienna'' () is a 1952 Austrian crime thriller film directed by Emil E. Reinert and starring Gustav Fröhlich, Cornell Borchers and Adrienne Gessner.Fritsche p.243 It is an adaptation of the 1933 novel '' I Was Jack Mortimer'' by Al ...

'' (1952) * '' I'm Marrying the Director'' (1960)

References

External links

*
Dorothea Neff
– description of her activity at the

, at

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Neff, Dorothea 1903 births 1986 deaths Austrian stage actresses Austrian Righteous Among the Nations Austrian people of German descent Actresses from Vienna Austrian film actresses 20th-century Austrian actresses