Escape from Austria

In December 1937, Ferdinand’s niece Maria (age 21) was married.  Her husband Fritz Altmann was the younger brother of the cashmere sweater manufacturer Bernhard Altmann. As a wedding gift, Ferdinand gave Maria a diamond necklace and earrings that had once belonged to Adele. After just two months of marriage, in March 1938, the Nazis annexed Austria. Fritz was arrested and sent to Dachau as a hostage to force his brother, who had escaped to France, to sign over his business to the Nazis. The Gestapo took Maria’s jewelry, sending her diamond necklace to the Nazi leader Hermann Göring as a present for his wife.

Ferdinand fled first to his summer home in Czechoslovakia, a large castle and estate outside Prague. When the Nazis took the Sudetenland, Ferdinand fled to Zurich, Switzerland, and his estate was used as the principal residence for the Nazi commander of the so-called Protectorate, Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich, one of the principal architects of the Nazi’s ”Final Solution” was leaving Ferdinand’s castle when he was assassinated in 1941.

After several months in prison, Fritz was ransomed by his brother and released from Dachau.  Maria was taken by the Gestapo to Berlin to seal the deal.  Although Fritz was subsequently placed under house arrest, he and Maria managed to escape on the way to a doctor’s appointment.  With Bernhard’s help, they fled over the border to the Netherlands where they were met by Bernhard and flown to Liverpool, England, where the British had invited Bernhard to build a new sweater factory. Maria and Fritz soon came to the United States and in 1942 reached Los Angeles, where Maria has resided ever since.  Maria became a U.S. citizen in 1945.