Franziska Holzschuh (geb. Höltmann)

Franziska Höltmann was born in Neulengbach in Lower Austria as the legitimate daughter of the day laborer Heinrich Höltmann and his wife Josefa, née Bruckner. She is the fifth child of the Catholic family. She attended five years of elementary school in Neulegbach before transferring to a domestic school in Scheibbs for six months. She then worked in her parents' household.

In 1913 or 1914, Franziska Höltmann moved to Vienna and worked there as a housekeeper. As a housemaid, she witnessed the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the break-up of the dual monarchy and the expulsion of the House of Habsburg. She was not politically active in the 1920s and 1930s, although she rejected National Socialism.

On March 12, 1938, Franziska Höltmann witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. Immediately after the occupation of Austria, she married the Catholic sales representative Heinrich Holzschuh on October 17, 1938 and became a housewife. However, the marriage remained childless.

Franziska and Heinrich Holzschuh lived at Antonsplatz 10 in Vienna's 10th district. The apartment opposite is occupied by Anna Schorn. Franziska Holzschuh and Anna Schorn often met to talk in the hallway.

On September 8, 1943, when Italy's surrender was announced on the morning radio news, Anna Schorn told Franziska Holzschuh, who was new to the news. The latter was delighted.

Anna Schorn tells the owner of the house, Anna Miggitsch, who lives in the same building. She then anonymously denounces Franziska Holzschuh in writing to the nearest police station (the 73rd police station). Anna Miggitsch later admits that she was the denouncer.

Franziska Holzschuh is arrested by the Gestapo on November 10, 1943 and sentenced to one year and six months in prison at a trial before the Special Court on February 24, 1944. The sentence was suspended on December 2, 1944, which is why Franziska Holzschuh was released that day.

In Vienna, Franziska Holzschuh witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. She joins the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich.