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Decades ago, when the raging hostility towards people with a Jewish background was at its peak in Austria, an unknown helping hand was lent to rescue them. Hands of kindness. Whose were they? The story might not ring any bell directly, as it did not become a mainstream chapter in the book of Holocaust horror.

Although years later, the story finally saw the light of dawn when author Vinay Gupta discovered a tale of an Indian man who rescued 14 Jews from the Nazi horror. This Indian man was none other than Vinay’s nana (grandfather), Kundan Lal Gupta.

When he came across his nana’s past, Vinay embarked on the journey and discovered who his grandfather truly was.

The story began in Vienna, which was a central pillar of Jewish culture and education back in the day. After the end of the First World War, Vienna was the capital of the Republic of German-Austria. In 1934, Vienna’s population was nearly 1.9 million, covering around 28% of the country’s entire population.

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By the year 1938, the city comprised 170,000 Jews and 80,000 people from mixed Christianity-Jewish descent. The same year saw Adolf Hitler take control of Austria; with him in command, the land witnessed the rise of anti-Semitism—hatred and discrimination towards jews—to its peak. In between the Nazi horror of anti-Semitism, one Indian man made his way back to Vienna.

In a family memoir, A Rescue in Vienna, written by Vinay Gupta, he discovers the unknown tale of his grandfather when he helped Jewish people. He offered them professional jobs in India, which enabled them to acquire visas. The memoir is drafted with the help of family letters, survivors' interviews, and historical records.

The memoir follows the journey of an Indian man from Ludhiana, Punjab, who transcended the borders. Kundan Lal Gupta was 46 years old when he suffered from diabetes and haemorrhoids, and he travelled to Austria after he learned about a specialist in Vienna.

He went to the foreign land in hopes that he would get treated there. There, he met a young couple, Lucy and Alfred Wachsler, who were expecting their first child together. It was through them that Gupta learned about the rising issue of anti-Semitism in Vienna.

Gupta saw the agony of the young couple, and in order to help them, he came up with a successful masterplan. Jewish people had the option to travel to another country on a work visa. Gupta saw an escape route in this option. Kundan Lal Gupta was a successful businessman in India but was born poor in Ludhiana. Gupta decided to set up companies, and he would do this specifically to create jobs for the Austrian Jews. 

This route was a dual opportunity for them—not only to receive their visa but also a means for a livelihood. If he could not set up companies, he would make imaginary ones. Oftentimes, he would even make job offers that simply did not exist. No real companies. No real job offers.

Although Gupta made sure that he completed all the documentation process so that the officials would not uncover his plan, which was a tactic used as an escape route by many Jews. Gupta equipped them with real-fake jobs and disseminated the job offers via newspaper advertisements. The job mandated its applicants to relocate to India, which was a blessing in disguise for the Austrian Jews.

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Kundan Lal’s Rescue in Vienna

The first respondent of the newspaper advert was Hans Losch, whose life was turned upside down because of the anti-Jewish law. Losch lost his job and his family business. During this time, Losch was shocked to his core, as he was not only offered a job by Kundan, but he was also offered housing facilities and a profit share in the imaginary company, ‘Kundan Cloth Mills’.

Kundan Lal Gupta rescued five families and a total of 14 Jews. Though he executed his plan perfectly, the end result was that many Jewish people received work visas to India.

Among them was Fritz Weiss, a Jewish lawyer who was also provided with the opportunity to start a fresh life somewhere else. Weiss was hiding in the same hospital where Kundan was getting his treatment. He was asked by the Nazis to clean the street right outside his home. The 30-year-old got the job offer at the counterfeit Kundan Agencies. Alfred Wachsler and his family shifted to India between January 1938 and February 1939.

Alfred Schafranek, who was once an owner of a plywood company, was offered a job to build India’s most modern plywood unit of that time. Siegmund Retter, a machine tools businessman, was one of the Jews Kundan approached to reach India. Among the people who received help from Kundan, they were offered jobs, guidance to get an Indian visa, financial stability, etc.

At the early stages of his plan, Kundan never really revealed his plan to his family. Vinay Gupta wrote in his memoir that, “His family learned of his plans only when he returned home months later." Kundan made sure his plans remained inside a closely knit circle, and no British or Indian official became aware of it. His efforts to save the Austrian Jews from Nazi torture brought change but in a restricted manner. 

The Jewish people arrived in India but were not nearly prepared to leave their culture and environment behind. They witnessed that Ludhiana was not what they expected. A stark contrast between the two places led to the argument of home and culture. They realized Ludhiana was hot and did not have any Jewish community.

Losch and Weiss left within weeks of coming to India. They first moved to Bombay and eventually left for the West. Even though Kundan was faced with a situation where his grave efforts to help Jews escape the Nazis were diluted, he held no bitterness against them. Vinay Gupta wrote in his memoir that his nana was instead embarrassed. “My aunt told me he actually felt embarrassed that he could not provide a lifestyle and social environment more suited to Vienna," wrote Gupta.

Other families who relocated to India stayed here for a longer period of time. The families of Wachsler and Schafranek lived in the houses Kundan Lal had built. Alfred Wachsler ran a furniture workshop when he was in India, whereas in 1939 Schafranek established one of India’s earliest plywood factories.

The tale does not end here; in fact, it was only the beginning. The year 1939 marked the official beginning of World War II when Hitler invaded Poland. India was controlled under the British regime and was pulled into the war. The Wachsler and Schafranek families were even sent to internment camps near Pune.

The story of Kundan Lal Gupta never saw the light of day, as he never spoke of it to anyone. When he returned home, he continued living his life as if nothing ever happened. This segment of his past remained a mystery up until his grandson discovered the truth.

Kundan remained true to his core by helping others by involving himself in a fight that was not his. He helped five Jewish families for the sake of humanity, and as Vinay Gupta mentioned in the memoir A Rescue in Vienna, his nana was not a “passive bystander.” He writes, "If he saw something, or someone, that required attention, he attended to it, never intimidated by the enormity of the problem.”

[Rh/VS]

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