Maria and Josef Dinzinger ran a remote farm near the Lower Bavarian village of Parnkofen in the Dingolfing district.
In April 1945, about ten days before the US Army’s arrival, two men they did not know knocked at their door. Their emaciated bodies in prisoners’ clothing told the farmers they were escaped prisoners. Yerucham Apfel and Arthur Fisch had managed to escape a death march from Kaufering to Landshut at the last minute.
Despite having a Nazi officer living in the house, the farmer hid the two Jews in the farmyard and gave them food and blankets for the night, helped by his wife. Even when the farm was occupied by the Wehrmacht as staff quarters, the Dinzingers did not send the Jewish men away.
In 1957 Yerucham Apfel traveled from Israel to Parnkofen to lay a wreath with the words “In memory of my rescuer” Josef Dinzinger’s grave. In 1966 Josef and Maria Dinzinger were honored by the Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. Maria Dinzinger also received the Federal Cross of Merit in 1971.