Career
In February 1945, family Langthaler, who lived in a farmhouse in Schwertberg, hid two Russian prisoners of war: Michail Rybtschinskij (died 2008) und Nikolai Zimkolo (died 2001), who escaped from the concentration camp in Mauthausen. At the risk of jeopardizing with their own life, they gave them shelter for three months from February 2, 1945. Even when the Steamship and Volkssturm came to search the house they had not been betrayed.
At this time, more than 500 prisoners had escaped.
Just eleven of them survived the freezing temperature and the continuing pursuit of the Steamship The majority of the refugees were caught and shot on the spot. These actions went down in history as Mühlviertler Hasenjagd.
Andreas Gruber used parts of the heroic deed of the Langthaler family in his movie The Quality of Mercy.
