In 1907, The painter Gustav Klimt was commissioned by Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, the owner of a sugar empire, to paint a portrait of his wife Adele Bloch-Bauer. This famous painting, once the crown jewel of the Belvedere Museum in Austria, would later inspire books and the movie, “Women in Gold”. Ferdinand and Adele had no children of their own and they lived together with Ferdinand’s brother, Gustav, his wife Therese (Adele’s sister), and their children Maria, Luise, Leopold, Karl, and Robert. Maria (1916-2011) shared a close relationship with her aunt Adele who would pass away from meningitis in 1925 at age 43. During WWII, many works of art were seized by the Nazi Gestapo from the Bloch-Bauers including the Klimt painting, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer”, later retitled “Women in Gold”.

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 On Dec 7th, 1937, Maria Bloch-Bauer married Frederich (Fritz) Altmann. Fritz was an accomplished opera singer who came from the Altmann family headed by brother Bernhard, a prominent Viennese knitting mill owner. As with many other Jewish business owners, the Altmann's businesses were "arianized" and they were forced to forfeit ownership in exchange for securing the release of Fritz from the Dachau concentration camp. At the heart of the movie, “Women in Gold” are the characters depicting Maria Bloch-Bauer Altmann and Fritz Altmann. The film depicts their escape from Nazi-occupied Austria to the US and Maria's endeavors with the assistance of lawyer Randol Schoenberg to acquire the portrait of her aunt Adele and other paintings from the Belvedere Museum in Austria where it had been placed under dubious circumstances. 

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 Running parallel to the story of Fritz and Maria Altmann is the story of their family members, Louis Gallet and his wife Valerie Auböck-Gallet. Louis Gallet was the first cousin of Fritz Altmann and was responsible for the management of Fritz's brother, Bernhard Altmann's knitting factories in Austria, Germany, and France. In 1933, five years before the German annexation of Austria, Louis and his wife Valerie moved to France. There Louis took on management of an Altmann-owned textile factory in Neuilly. In 1939 there was a five-year waiting list for Visas to the US unless one had been previously applied for. Fortunately, Louis and Valerie had applied previously and they were able to obtain travel Visas and depart from the port in Le Havre, France in June of 1939. In September of 1939, France began militarization in anticipation of war with Germany. By May of 1940, Less than one year after the Gallets departed France, German troops had taken Paris. It was not until 1944, that Allied troops would liberate France from German control. During the period of German occupation from 1940-1944 an estimated 50,000 foreign-born Jewish Parisians had been killed. Had it not been for their earlier application for a US visa, the Gallet story may have ended in France.

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 On June 26, 1939, Louis Gallet and Valerie Auboeck-Gallet arrived in New York, NY aboard the transatlantic liner, SS De Grasse. They would briefly stay with Gerhard Herlinger, the son of Louis’s cousin, Klara Altmann Herlinger in New York City. By July of 1939, the couple had migrated to Fall River, Massachusetts where they would manage one of Bernhard Altmann's knitting mills. In 1940, Louis and Valerie would reunite with Fritz and Maria Altmann in Fall River. Shortly thereafter, Fritz and Maria would move to Los Angeles, and Louis and Valerie would migrate to the Quaker community of Penn Craft and eventually make their home in Uniontown, PA. Letters and photos from the Gallet archives reveal a warm relationship between the Altmann and Gallet family members.