Gravestone for Hilda Meisel Monte-Olday in Feldkirch

Hilde Meisel, born in 1914 in Vienna, later known as Hilda Olday and Hilda Monte, grew up in Berlin and joined the „Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund“. From 1933 in London, she performed courier services and helped persecuted individuals escape. In the summer of 1944, she was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services for espionage in Germany and trained in paratrooper operations. Through France, she entered Switzerland, established contacts with Austrian collaborators, and crossed the border illegally. On the way back to Switzerland, she was captured by a border patrol near Feldkirch and shot. She was buried on the Evangelical Cemetery. It was not until 1947 that the true identity of the slain „Eva Schneider“ was revealed by the then Vorarlberger National Council representative Anton Linder, based on his request for correction of personal details in the death register. Austrian Socialists placed a stone with an inscription honoring her on her grave at the Evangelical Cemetery. In 2020, the stone was turned over by the War Graves Commission „Schwarzes Kreuz“ and a new inscription was added: „Shot while fleeing“. In 2021, the stone was repositioned, restored, and a memorial plaque was installed by the Jewish Museum Hohenems.