Valerie Bäumer came from a wealthy Jewish family. She lived in Salzburg with her husband, the painter Eduard Bäumer, and their three children Angelica, Michael, and Bettina. After Austria’s “annexation” to the German Reich in 1938, the family lost all their assets.
Valerie Bäumer was of Jewish origins but was initially classified a “Mischling” (“half-breed”). After being denounced by relatives in 1943, she was classed as “fully Jewish.” She had to wear the yellow star on her clothing and her passport was stamped with a letter J.
In August 1944 Valerie Bäumer feared she was about to be deported, and fled to Großarl outside Salzburg with her children. Two years previously the local pastor, Balthasar Linsinger, had declared himself willing to help the Bäumers if they were in danger. They posed as a bombed-out family from Vienna. The children were able to stay at the parish house until the end of the war.
Valerie Bäumer made repeated trips to Salzburg. She had to perform forced labor in a uniform factory from November 1944. Later, she was permitted to work from home but had to report regularly to the Gestapo in Salzburg. After the war, the family returned to Salzburg together.
Valerie and Eduard Bäumer, 1924. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Valerie Bäumer (left) with her daughter Bettina and mother Ida Auguste Feix in the spring of 1943, shortly before her mother’s deportation to Theresienstadt. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Notification from the Reich Office for Genealogical Research classifying Valerie Bäumer as “Jewish,” issued June 15, 1943. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
The Bäumer family in Salzburg in May 1945, left to right: Michael, father Eduard, mother Valerie, Bettina, and Angelica. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
