Erwin Lutz is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n "

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, ...

". In 1944 the police officer Erwin Lutz was working as a chef in a prison in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

. Together with police inspector Rudi Moser he decided to save five Jewish Polish girls from deportation into a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

. He convinced his bosses in the prison administration to remove the girls' papers from the files and to give them jobs in his prison kitchen. When orders came to transport all prisoners to KZ-Bergen-Belsen on January 18, 1945 they organized the escape of the five girls. Two of them managed to flee. Erwin Lutz offered them his apartment in Ahorndorfstraße 3 as first shelter.

External links

Dokumentation about Austrian Righteous Among the Nations

– his activity to save Jews' lives 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 ...

, at

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 ...

website Austrian Righteous Among the Nations Austrian police officers People from Bolzano {{Austria-hist-stub