The Unusual Criminal Career of Martha Marek
Her greed led her to do some strange things
Martha Loewenstein, who was born around 1904, was a dazzlingly beautiful young girl who worked in a dress shop in Vienna, and whose background was miserably poor.
She was a foundling, who had been adopted and brought up in the slums of Vienna. When she went to work in the dress shop, she was so efficient, and carried herself so well, that whoever owned the shop presented her with smart dresses.
One day in the early 1920s, she met a rich man who lived alone in a villa in the nearby city of Mödling. He was so impressed by Martha’s charm and firmness of character that he invited her to become his ward. Suddenly, the life of poverty was behind her; Cinderella was adored and spoiled by her elderly Prince Charming.
Yet there were drawbacks. She would have preferred a younger admirer, and this explained why she experienced fits of depression and irritability. Her kindly benefactor, Moritz Fritsch, cheered her up by telling her that he intended to leave her the house and a part of his fortune.
A year later, at the age of 74, Fritsch died peacefully. His ex-wife was infuriated to learn that he had left the house to a girl who had been his ward for less than five years; but her son persuaded her against…
