Stuttering King Saved Jewish Woman’s Life
King George VI, the subject of the Acadamy Award winning movie “The King’s Speech’ saved the life of a Jewish woman sentenced to death for poisoning her mother in London…and who eventually settled in NSW.
King George VI
Irene Brann was born in Germany in 1911 and moved to London in 1937 fleeing Nazi persecution. In 1941, fearing Hitler’s forces would attack Britain, she entered into a suicide pact with her mother. Her mother died but Irene survived and was found guilty of murdering her mother and sentenced to death.
She wrote to King George VI from her cell and he granted commuting her sentence to one of life imprisonment. The authorities relented further and she was released a few months later, She moved to Sydney where in 1955, she married Adolf Schleiss a Swiss national who changed his name to Eduard Tell.
She died in 1968.
Dresden author Heidrun Hannusch says she wrote the book “Death Sentence for the SUicide Victim” told media: “I couldn’t get this story out of my soul. It reflects great credit on a compassionate King who deserved to be remembered for more than simply conquering an overpowering stutter.”
Re ‘Stuttering King Saved Jewish Woman’s Life’, King George VI is remembered for far more than his stutter! He and the Queen, whom you may have heard of as Elizabeth the Queen Mother, stayed in London, refusing to leave, all through the Blitz in World War II, and walked around helping people after the German raids. They were courageous and kind, and set the present Queen the great example that has enabled her so well to discharge her own royal duties with such fortitude and success.