Ludwig and Maria Knapp

In 1944, Ludwig Knapp and his wife Maria were the owners of a sawmill and an agricultural farm in Weitra in Gmünd in Lower Austria.

Their business suffered a shortage of workers, so they decided to employ Jewish forced labourers in order to save them from deportation.

They considered their age and their health status in the working time and offered them warm food and clothing.

During his interrogation he could not explain why they had succeeded in their escape, but he offered to join the search for his "missing" workers.

When the danger was past, the Knapps led the Jews out of the woods and hid them in their house until the war was over.