LINTNER, Teresa – widow of Stefan Lintner (1908 – 1996)
Even before the war, Stefan Linttner was known by the inhabitants of Czortkow in the Tarnopol district, as being sympathetic toward Jews, and employed many Jews in the town’s only cinema, which he owned. When the Germans occupied Czortkow in the summer of 1941, his cinema was requisitioned for the Department of German Propaganda, and he was warned to sever all contacts with Jews.
The above notwithstanding, Linttner decided to continue helping Jews, and in late July 1941, when a German police unit captured 150 Jews and shot them in the neighboring forest, Linttner sheltered Jews who escaped the massacre. In September 1943, when the Germans liquidated the Czortkow ghetto and surrounding labor camps, Linttner opened his door to eight Jewish refugees, including four members of the Geter family, Olga Stern, and others. Linttner, guided by friendship and true humanitarian consideration that triumphed over adversity, risked his life to save the Jewish refugees, without expecting anything in return. All the refugees stayed with Linttner until March 1944, when the area was liberated by the Red Army.
On February 16, 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Stefan Linttner as Righteous Among the Nations.
