STAIR-WELL DEATH
WOMAN REFUGEE HEART-RENDING SCENE Falling eight floors down the stairwell at a city building, an Austrian woman refugee was killed when she struck a steel grille above the .basement. Registration papers in a bag found on the eighth floor landing led to her identification as Mrs. Martha Fitehmann, aged 32. who came to Australia in December, 1938. Mrs. Fitehmann, a dressmaker, had a shop in the city. When she registered as an alien, she said she was a refugee from Austria, but did not say why she left the country to settle in Australia. She spoke fairly good Engl <di A heart-rending scene was witnessed at a city police skition when the dead woman’s husband called with sobbing relatives to identify her body. The police were told that ‘about the time Germany invaded > Poland, bringing (Germany and England into conflict, Mrs. Fitehmann tried to commit suicide by plunging a knife into her heart. Her husband prevented her and only a slight wound was inflicted. Mrs. Fitehmann had been worried about her parents in Austria, for she did not know their fate as a result of the war
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20133, 30 December 1939, Page 13
Word Count
189STAIR-WELL DEATH Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20133, 30 December 1939, Page 13
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