Schmid, Anton

Back in 1938, after the Anschluss of Austria, Anton Schmid helped several familiar Jews to flee abroad. Subsequently, Schmid was called up in the Wehrmacht and served in the rear units, first in Poland and then in Vilnius . He was appointed head of the distribution point of soldiers lagging behind their military units. Its distribution point was located at the Vilnius railway station.

Schmid saved many Jews of the Vilnius ghetto , hid Jews in the basement of a distribution center, organized workshops where Jews worked and received food rations. In addition, Schmid actually worked as a liaison between underground groups in various Jewish ghettos of Lithuania , Belarus and Poland. He collaborated with one of the leaders of the underground in the Vilnius ghetto Abba Kovner .

Schmid on a service truck was transporting Jews from Vilnius to places where destruction had not yet begun - in particular, in the Lid and Warsaw ghettos . He tried to save the famous Jewish historian Seeds Dubnov from the ghetto of Riga , but was late for a few days - Dubnov was already shot.

In January 1942, the Germans discovered in the Lid ghetto a large group of Jews from Vilnius. Some, unable to withstand the torture, told who brought them to Lida . Anton Schmid was arrested. Defender Schmid tried in court to save his life, arguing that "Schmid sincerely thought that the Wehrmacht needed these Jews as labor." Schmid frankly called the reason "that he simply wanted ... to save the Jews from death" . On February 25, 1942, the field commandant's tribunal sentenced Anton Schmid to death . In his farewell letter to his wife and daughter, he told how Jews were exterminated by disguising the murderers under the phrase “Lithuanian military”, thereby circumventing censorship ^[1] .

... think about me Steffi and Gerd ... forgive me, (saving the Jews) I acted like a Man and didn’t want anyone to evil ... When you keep this letter in your hands - I will not be alive already ... I can never write to you anymore, but be sure that we will see you in the best world, at our Christ!

The sentence was carried out on April 13, 1942.

Later, at the trial of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1960 in Jerusalem, one of the underground workers of the Vilnius ghetto Abba Kovner referred to his conversation with Anton Schmid, who first called Eichmann as responsible for the destruction of Jews in Europe .

• In May 1967, the Israeli Institute " Yad Vashem " Anton Schmid was recognized as "the righteous man of peace ", his widow was awarded a commemorative medal and a diploma.

• The quarter in the Vienna district of Brigittenau , where he was born, is named after Schmid; in 1990 a memorial plaque was installed there. The name Schmid also carries an alley on the bank of Donaukhanal .

• On May 8, 2000, on the day of the 55th anniversary of the end of World War II, the new barracks of the air defense training center in the city of Rendsburg (Schleswig-Holstein) were named after Anton Schmid. At the opening ceremony, German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said:

Feldwebel Anton Schmid showed courage, courage, civil courage ... Calling the barracks his name, we bow to the merits of a man who, without much thought, on his own initiative saved many people from inevitable death and paid for it with his own life

• On September 22, 2011, a memorial to Anton Schmid ^{[2] [3]} was opened in Antakalns cemetery in Vilnius.

• Schulz, Willy (officer)

• Frida Abramovich . Feldwebel Anton Schmid - one of the German Righteous // // Partner, 2006, № 1.
• Evgeny Berkovich . Two minutes of silence. Feldwebel Anton Schmid - a righteous man in a Nazi uniform // “ Notes on Jewish History ”, issue 22.
• A soldier “whose heart was given to the Jews” (Neopr.) (Inaccessible link) . Yad Vashem . The appeal date is September 1, 2012. Archived May 10, 2019.
• A letter from Anton Schmid to his wife, written before the execution (Unsolved) . Yad Vashem .

• Madievsky S.A. Other Germans. - M .: House of Jewish Books, 2006. - 1000 copies. - 110 pp. - ISBN 5-98831-019-2