A fortune of between two and three million francs has been bequeathed by an Austrian woman of the protestant faith to the Joint Distribution Committee to be used to aid Austrian Jews, it was learned today.
Officials of the probate court of the Alpes-Maritime department notified the Paris office of the American relief agency of the bequest, made by Mlle, Marie Louise Wllner-Hofteufel, who died in a sanatorium at Vance on May 15, 1944. In explaining her reason for bequeathing her estate for Jewish relief, she declared “I have taken the decision to leave my fortune for the aid of these who I feel are the poorest among the poor because they are persecuted for their faith.”
JDC officials here were surprised by notification of the bequest, since to their knowledge, Mlle. Hofteufel had never had any contact with the relief organization. They said that on the basis of the executor’s report, the estate was valued at between two and three million francs, principally in cash, jewelry and personal effects in France, and jewelry and cash in both Swiss and New York banks.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
